Linux news

2007 07 03

Survey Shows That Linux Technical Support Has Improved

The top Linux support weaknesses, then and now

In 2003, SearchEnterpriseLinux.com visited the Linux support landscape with a list of Linux support weaknesses. A lot has happened over the past four years, as is evident in the success of Red Hat and Novell's subscription-based support models and the meteoric rise of commercial-grade Ubuntu support, to name a few.

http://s5h.net/u?z6dda
Related: Which is better for technical support

I have found in general that with open source support you often get more than what you pay for but with closed source support, by some of the biggest names in software, the support is often lacking in the value department. With open source asking for support has generally resulted in a solution within a week and I have never paid for it. However with closed source companies I have open tickets that have not been resolved in months. With open source I can communicate directly with the author(s) of the program and work closely with them to find a solution. Closed source on the other hand has just requested information, verified the bug and then informed us that the solution may be available in the next release of the program.

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http://s5h.net/u?z4b15
Microsoft's Genuine Advantage

A lot of managers are afraid to use Open Source Software, because it doesn't come with any support. Of course that isn't true. It is a classical piece of FUD. And then again, how much is support worth? [...] MS: Microsoft Support. Good morning, sir. Can I help you. IC: Windows displays some strange message on my screen. MS: What's the message, sir. IC: ReadStringFromInf: UpdSpGetLineText failed: 0xe0000102; Microsoft Windows is Not Present MS: May I have your product key, sir. IC: [gives completely valid product key] MS: Ok, sir. Can you please reboot your PC? IC: Will that solve the problem? MS: Please reboot your PC, sir. IC: Ok, ok, wait a minute. MS: Please call us again if you eXPerience any more problems. Have a nice day, sir. [click]

http://s5h.net/u?z2399
I work for MS but even I struggle to get a hot-fix

The problem took 260 minutes to resolve from start to finish and an estimated 90 minutes of Ledgard's time, not including the time it took to write-up his problems... Still, the frustrations experienced by Ledgard give a salutary lesson that Microsoft's online product support is mediocre, at best, and will surely strike a chord with many long-suffering sys admins.

http://s5h.net/u?z79d