Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2006 08:41:49 +0100 (BST) From: Robert Watson <rwatosn@FreeBSD.org> To: Mark Linimon <linimon@lonesome.com> Cc: Dennis Melentyev <dennis.melentyev@gmail.com>, Alexey Karagodov <karagodov@gmail.com>, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Disappointed Message-ID: <20060412083912.U21446@fledge.watson.org> In-Reply-To: <20060410215633.GA2483@soaustin.net> References: <20060405200341.GD14126@math.jussieu.fr> <20060405200727.GA28371@xor.obsecurity.org> <20060405201500.GE14126@math.jussieu.fr> <20060405211154.GA30089@soaustin.net> <c7aff4ef0604060458u1a019e0dna740f61e53299c25@mail.gmail.com> <b84edfa10604060612s21e4ebb9w1d3465f1418cb242@mail.gmail.com> <b84edfa10604060613w36b02f3dhcda5d4fb6c3a393f@mail.gmail.com> <c7aff4ef0604060623g575bf32fh890d3471c978759b@mail.gmail.com> <20060410215633.GA2483@soaustin.net>
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On Mon, 10 Apr 2006, Mark Linimon wrote: > If you want something where guaranteed support comes bundled with the > operating system, get Windows and a support contract, Solaris and a support > contract, or possibly RedHat (or equivalent) and a support contract. > Otherwise, you are going to get "we will do our best to provide a system, > for free, that works as well as possible for as many people as possible. > Good luck and help us to fix the inevitable bugs." And that's true for any > of the BSDs and any of the (non-commercially-supported) Linux variants. > > Or you could try to start your own company based on one of the *BSD > codebases and charge for support (basically, the RedHat business model). Let > us know how it works out. I think there is some demand for such a thing, > but I'm not going to risk my own capital and time finding out. FWIW, there are a number of companies floating around that will gladly offer support, consulting, and contracting for FreeBSD deployments. You can even buy 24-hour support from organizations like FreeBSD Mall. As far as I can tell from talking to people associated with some of these companies, the big question from customers is always "Is it possible to buy support", not "I'd like to order support". Apparently simply asking and knowing it's available is sufficient, meaning that they tend not to be very profitable business ventures, as apparently few people actually need support :-). I guess the FreeBSD documentation and mailing lists provide pretty decent first tier support so most people never need a next tier. Robert N M Watson
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