On Sun, 2005-03-27 at 07:47 -0800, Paul Heinlein wrote:
> On Sun, 27 Mar 2005, Collins Richey wrote:
>
> > More fuel for the community support model, as opposed to the
> > official (paid) support channels.
>
> There are (at least) three different kinds of support involved:
>
> 1. troubleshooting after installation,
>
> 2. packaging and patching,
>
> 3. architecture building.
>
> User lists are great at the first kind. It's unlikely that a
> corporate support team, no matter how good it is, can match the
> collective wisdom of its user base when it comes to real-world
> troubleshooting.
>
> By using CentOS we are largely relying on Red Hat's professionals for
> the bulk of the latter two support items. Keeping up with the myriad
> security and bug fixes available for the software in even a minimal
> Linux installation is a large and painstaking job. Likewise,
> maintaining the installer, system-configuration tools, and overall
> package-layout scheme requires a large, concerted effort.
>
> So it's worth saying that Red Hat's customers are underwriting a
> considerable amount of the (necessary and well done) support we
> receive. Those .src.rpm packages we rebuild aren't for the most part
> constructed on volunteer time. :-)
----
of course the software that RHEL is troubleshooting, patching,
repackaging, etc. is GPL and similar license and that is what enables
them to operate and they aren't selling the software itself, only the
support & update entitlements.
It shouldn't be forgotten 'where the buck stops' - if you have purchased
RHEL entitlement, the purchase means that you have Red Hat support to
fall back on.
If you use a repackaged product such as CentOS, then you are your
responsible for the support - you don't have Red Hat to fall back on.
While I agree, that a list like this one - or the specific package lists
for many of the individual software projects are likely to give you more
timely answers, there is no guarantee that they will be good answers and
you have to sort through them and figure out how they apply.
Just last week, on fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx - someone was given an answer
which told him to simply rm -fr /var/cache - which the user did. It
solved the issue of yum not having enough disk space to run...but it
created a whole host of new problems. There is no certainty of any
quality of answers on these lists.
So in the end, I leave the issue up to my customers. I show them the Red
Hat Enterprise Linux programs and point out the suitable entitlement for
what we are doing and suggest that this leaves them with support options
and support responsibility besides me - or the repackaged versions such
as CentOS which make me (or someone with similar skills) the final
responsible party. Most businesses will choose the Red Hat option which
to me, seems to be a smart move but I am agreeable either way.
Craig
