Opinions Wanted: Dell PowerEdge Servers ... ?

[Alex Zbyslaw]

Mike Galvez wrote:

>No small thing you need to consider when choosing Dell is that they DO NOT support
>FreeBSD. They support Windows and Red Hat Linux. If the machine is not lights-out
>and the OS is not one of the above, they will not send parts or a technician.
>
>I found this out the hard way and had to load Linux on a spare drive just to prove
>a piece of hardware was failing. They wasted a lot of my time. The cheaper cost of
>their hardware was easily outweighed by the wasted hours of my time.
>  
>
Disclaimer: fingers crossed we have yet to have a hardware problem or 
need Dell's support.  Also, my experience of their "technical support" 
as a private purchaser of a laptop, was absolutely lousy.  My only 
consolation was that their being so atrocious cost them more money than 
they could possibly have made on the laptop.  I have been told that they 
are better for business class customers but have no proof.

The 2850 servers we purchased came with Dell diagnostics on slice 1 - 
running Windows 95 I think!  It would seem especially prudent when 
running a non-supported OS in any production environment to keep those 
diagnostics intact.  BSD will happily install on slices 2-4 and auto 
boot from whichever you last booted from, so the diags can stay 
invisible until you need them.

--Alex