OK, this email probably seems like the exact opposite of my last one.
Bear with me as I attempt to sort out my thoughts about this company. ;-)
Support is nice; that's the reason I bought a VA Linux server, instead of some random X86 box. I know that if I happen to be really busy, I can just pick up the phone and ask VA what to do. That's a nice feeling, even though I am competent to fix most things. And it saves my client money when they don't have to pay consulting rates for stupid problems.
Actually, that's also the reason I paid $80 for a RH boxed set for home use; I don't have time to get bogged down in say, video card configuration. RH's "installation only" phone support was actually very helpful, even providing a few "configuration" details.
Matthew you are certainly correct about the availability of support as a great selling point for getting Linux in the door. Will most companies purchase said support? My personal experiences with the low- to mid-level support offerings from Microsoft have left me wary of the whole thing: long hold times, ignorant "first-line" reps who try to look up your problem in a database, and overly strict interpretations of the "per-incident" clause are the norm. I hope RedHat can manage to provide decent service to all paying comers and still make a healthy profit.
I had actually decided to give SuSE Linux a try, but I dumped them when tech support emails went un-answered for 3 WEEKS.
Another thing that will work to RH's advantage is familiarity. I recommend RH to clients partially because I know it's decent, and partially because I already know its quirks.
There portal strategy seems like a crock though. Over the last several months, their website has been frequently broken in the e-commerce dept, and lacking in basic technical details about their products. Mostly though, it seems to lack focus and immediacy. I hope that as they pull together their web team, all this will get sorted out.
-Lee |
