[Gllug] Linux support options

[Richard]

Martin A. Brooks wrote:

> Richard wrote:
>
>> I'm looking at the options for supporting a major corporate Linux 
>> deployment, and I'm wondering if there's a way to dodge Red Hat's 
>> painfully high support contract costs (or their per-server pricing 
>> model).
>
>
> Yes, don't use Redhat.  Use something supportable instead.  Debian 
> springs to mind.
> <snip>

I can't see the customer going for it, in any way, under any 
circumstances. Their imagination only just makes it over the line to 
Redhat as is.

> I was contracted to a company that had a number of Redhat development 
> machines running Oracle.  These machines would routinely require 
> rebooting, were badly patched, and required a large amount of 
> non-Redhat software.
>
> I replaced half of them with Debian and they suddenly went upward of 
> 12 months between reboots.  The company has since moved their 
> production systems to Debian.
> <snip>

I'm willing to concede that could happen, but that will have to happen 
when they feel they can trust Linux in some sense, which they're not yet 
sure of.

>
> It's a free market, they can charge whatever they like.  Quite why 
> anyone pays for open source software in its own right is beyond me, 
> though.

Quite. However, these guys want a warm, cuddly support contract to 
"mitigate risk".

Richard
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