Submitted by Debian is a steadfastly noncommercial version of Linux. But Hewlett-Packard will give it a big corporate hug Monday with the announcement of a plan to provide support for the open-source operating system.
HP to Offer Support for Debian
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But, since it hadn’t been linked yet and it is pretty big news for Debian, I decided to submit it.
The article states that HP was able to solve 99.5% of their linux support calls internally last year, without aid from RedHat, SUSE, etc. That’s pretty impressive. Is that proportional to, say, Dell’s stats? Anyone have any idea?
Hooray! Calloo! Callay! Oh, frabjous day!
*Ahem* Excuse me.
Interesting literary context he chortled in his joy.
Though it sounds good, I’m not sure if this will change things for Debian at all. HP won’t install Debian. They said that customers who want it will have to download and install it by themselves, though they will provide support for doing it if needed.
Good for HP, but too bad they didn’t decide to go all the way and offer Debian as an alternative to RedHat and Novell as the preinstalled Linux on their servers.
The trick is, HP customers who are making a choice of which distribution to deploy now have Debian as a fully supported option (crucial when you are selling an idea to an exec). Large enterprises *very* rarely utilize non-supported OSes in their infrastructure.
Kudos to HP for stepping out on this one,I must say, especially since the recent onslaught of Ubuntu. I use Ubuntu myself, but I have recently entertained the idea of going back to debian ecth maybe. I have been hearing on and off things about etch, so I am unsure what the quality is like ATM. Ubuntu is greate for desktops, but is does have its quirks, and I would be very hesitant to instal Ubuntu on a production server, whereas I wouldnt even flinch at using Sarge in a production environment.
Ok, now that Debian has the support of 1 big IHV (independent hardware vendor), it is time to look at the ISVs (independent software vendor). I would actually say it is more important to get the ISVs like Oracle, SAP, etc to support Debian than for hardware companies.
The only way this will happen is with demand. Contact sales reps in companies like Oracle and ask when they will support Debian officially.
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Companies selling preinstalled Linux Desktops and Laptops:
http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/23168/
HP needs to sell preinstalled Linux Desktops and Laptops.
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Edited 2006-08-14 17:09
I agree in principle, but this is a step in the right direction in my opinion. Baby steps…
If HP removed that ankle chain to Redmond maybe they could take bigger steps.
When I was a Network Admin, I tried every possible way to get Linux into our Enterprise. Our CIO always balked saying, “Who do we call if you get over your head” and now that I own a business, I can see his point.
This is great news because now once cost savings/ROI and other sellers tools are realized, the CIO’s hear “Oh yeah, and you can call us directly for support.”
While I see your point, this sentiment is, in part, a reflection of the corporate habit of “passing the buck.” There always needs to be someone to blame if something goes wrong, and no, it’s never _my_ fault.
The problem is that sometimes computer hardware/software just can’t do what you want it to do, or it fails because of something you directly or indirectly told it to do, and no realistic level of support can fix this. If you need a new third-party application, and it doesn’t run on your platform, there’s not much support can do. If your server crashes and loses data, there’s not much that anyone can do.
If you can’t figure out how to configure iptables, support can help. But the concept of this limited-time guarantee is a false sense of self-assurance. There are plenty of independent consultants (for example) who would be willing to charge an hourly rate to help you configure iptables. For many customers, this would be a more cost effective service model.
Who, you ask, can you call if this guy’s iptables configuration lets through some malicious packets? Unless you can track down the origin of the packets, then nobody.
CIOs: Stop passing the buck, start taking responsibility. I know it’s tough to sit behind your desk in your fancy suit and realize that your mistakes can cost your company millions of dollars. That’s why you’re a CIO, and that’s why you get paid more than most people in your company. Deal with it.
Several decades ago, when companies ran on ink and paper, you didn’t call Hearst Paper when you had problems managing your data. You cracked down on management and designed better document handling procedures. You took responsibility for your own infrastructure. Why is it any different with digital infrastructure?
Butters, touchee!
While I see your point, this sentiment is, in part, a reflection of the corporate habit of “passing the buck.” There always needs to be someone to blame if something goes wrong, and no, it’s never _my_ fault.
Nonsense. If one guy installs a operating system at work with which no-one else is familiar, and the system falls over while he’s on his holidays, the company is screwed.
If he gets sick, and a problem occurs, the company is screwed.
If he leaved without preparing appropriate handover documentation, the company is screwed.
Add to that the difficulty of hiring quality admins with Linux knowledge (they’re rare and they’re not cheap) and it’s perfectly reasonable from a management perspective to ensure that there is always a Plan B, which in this case is third-party support.
And I might add that several decades ago people were using calculating machines (some from IBM and HP in fact), and it was common for people to pay IBM and HP and others to provide operators in case anything went wrong, or even just to service the machines every now and again to make sure nothing would go wrong. It’s exactly the same principle, and it’s been a common part of business for at least a century and probably more.
Edited 2006-08-14 23:27
I’m not sure anyone else will see that point without knowing how high your head is.
HP has been offering Debian support for quite some time now, at least since Q1 2005.
http://h20219.www2.hp.com/services/cache/76815-0-0-225-121.aspx
You’re supposed to fix Debian servers? When? I’ve never had Debian go down on me!