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Re: Part I: Corporate Desktop Linux - The Hard Truth
(Score: 1, Informative)
by Anonymous on Feb 04, 2005 - 02:32 PM
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It is simply not true that you can't get a linux desktop from a "top tier" manufacturer. I just spent 30 seconds looking and found: http://www.techdepot.com/product.asp?productid=2146141&affid=10000485
HP desktop with Mandrake Linux for $381.95. There are many other options if you spend a few minutes looking.
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Re: Part I: Corporate Desktop Linux - The Hard Truth
(Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Feb 04, 2005 - 03:35 PM
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In Europe (Denmark) is it possible to get the price difference for HP and ACER and the pricediff. is quite close to the announced OEM price.
If somebody want it can post the prices.
Rune
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Re: Part I: Corporate Desktop Linux - The Hard Truth
(Score: 1, Insightful)
by Anonymous on Feb 05, 2005 - 05:25 AM
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As it turns out RedHat has a indemification program that comes with the support packages. Also companies feel comfortable paying for an Certified Enterprise-class Linux distribution rather than a no cost solution. Studies also have shown that most companies choose Linux because of it's value (not cost, but freedom of choice).
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Re: Part I: Corporate Desktop Linux - The Hard Truth
(Score: 1, Informative)
by Anonymous on Feb 05, 2005 - 06:27 AM
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Before you buy that service contract from Dell, you better read the fine print on it. I had a recent experience at work (large university) with a Precision 670 workstation where an updated kernel package from RHN wouldn't boot because of a Dell proprietary scsi driver.
I called RedHat to see if they could help me block the driver from inmodding (there's no scsi devices in the box) and they said "Your Dell support contract is for Level 3 (vendor-supplied) support. We can't help you." I called Dell support and they said "Our Linux support is for the system 'As Installed.' We don't support RedHat updates."
As a result, we (the Unix support group in the College of Engineering) no longer recommend buying support contracts from Dell. If a prof is paranoid enough to want a support contract, we tell them to buy direct from RedHat.
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Re: Part I: Corporate Desktop Linux - The Hard Truth
(Score: 0)
by Anonymous on Feb 05, 2005 - 07:55 AM
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Ignoring the fact that the article is about desktop and your prices are server:
Red Hat is no longer free to download in any meaningful sense. You must have a
service contract to download .iso or .rpm files and you may not use the binaries on a computer for which you have not paid the service contract. They do not explain how these rules apply when the service contract expires.
Red Hat has managed to create a "proprietary" linux via trademark laws. They have made it easy (and required) to remove their trademarks from the source distribution so the FSF has no problem with them since they follow the GPL to the letter. I never did like Red Hat much (since v2) but, being a system administrator, I have to deal with what people want. The only reason I can see to run Red Hat is to get Oracle support. [ Suse seems a better solution there but I have never used it. ]. If you want to do Oracle development and don't want/need, there are recipes to get Oracle onto Debian which are simpler than for their supported platforms.
A fair comparison to windows would be 3 year support which makes Red Hat nominally more expensive. However, it comes with a lot of stuff built-in for which futher licensed products must be purchased for Windows.
There are several commercial desktop linux offerings and most of the ones I have seen which look competitive with Windows are based on Debian. Except, perhaps Mandrake, but I tried it and hated it (KDE mostly).
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Re: Part I: Corporate Desktop Linux - The Hard Truth
(Score: 1, Interesting)
by Anonymous on Feb 05, 2005 - 10:09 AM
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Most of the companies I have worked for required a service contract to be in place before we could purchase new equiptment. This was for computers, fax machines, servers, printers, even the software programs on the desktop like lacert and office. They even specify what the service contract must cover before we can purchase it. I dunno how this plays into other companies but i would asume they have somethign simular. If it is, then ther support contract is a must wether they use it or not.
It was explained to me once this way. With a service/support contract in place, a companie directory can be used to call support personell in if needed and they don't have to worry about some manager calling his brother for wsupport and inflating a bill. Also, all modification and such would be made by people keeping the same records and it is less likley that another support person would disable somethign causing problems. The amount of security around this i guess ouytweights the convienience and cost savings. thier in house it staff can do most of anything needed and there are local contractors that are approved to help, but they still want the contracts.
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