Re: [cobalt-users] [Webmin] was Are Raq's here to stay? (opinionswanted)

["Larry E. Smith" <lesmith@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Tue, Nov 13, 2001 at 10:17:36AM -0800, Rusty Wilson wrote:
>
> I dont know what list your reading, but I have seen any "bashing" going
> on (except for one post that declared "Compaq Sucks!". I have seen a
> lot of professional constructive criticism, and truthful statements
> being made.
> 

  Overall, true - and I agree.  That's what makes it so great, we
  all have elbows - - I mean opinions - - and are free to express
  them.  My "context" (and maybe bashing is the "wrong" phrase)
  is that I was seeing a lot of "you might consider/I am looking
  at/XYZ does/ type of conversation all of a sudden....

> What I see is a lot people (myself included) that like our little blue
> boxes, and would like to stay with them. However, customer demands, and
> market competetion are making that increasingly difficult - and the RaQ
> is becomming less competetive every day. Everyone is adjusting
> including Sun, but they aren't improving the RaQ line.
> 
  Ok, grant you that customers are becoming "more intelligent"
  and that products are improving.  This "forum" is one of the
  ways to get these "ideas" back to Sun/Cobalt - but doing it
  through "I am looking at ABC product" is probably not the
  "best" way to get that message across is all I am saying...

  And yes, overall I "like" my little Blue boxes too and
  recommend them for customers - given the "right" situation and
  environment.  I also sell considerable "higher" end HP, Compaq
  and SCO/Unixware and other platforms.  It all depends upon what
  the customer wants/needs/is willing to pay for.  As my good
  friend Bill (not on this board) says - speed costs, how fast
  you want to go??
> 
> Saying you paid $2400 for support that was ineffective doesn't mean
> that we should be happy that Sun isn't charging for their support. In
> fact, in re-reading the posts, support doesn't seen to be the issue
> here. The issue is cost/performance/functionality.
>
  That wasn't my point....

> By they way, why did you use another product? Was there a feature not
> available in the RaQ that you needed?
>
  Not an "RAQ" or box at all - a software package that I "have"
  to use right now (but am working on "other" solutions - which I
  have discussed with the company in question one on one...).

> I cant speak for everyone, but i WOULD like to stay with my RaQs. Even
> if not the most powerful system today, they have been incredibly
> reliable - but my users are demanding more features (which are
> available in competing products).
>
  Agree, and we are actually "building" custom application
  "platforms" for some of our customers using the basic Cobalt
  platform.  Its not "perfect" but it is something I can work
  with and in my case I am just as comfortable at the
  "command-line" as in the GUI (started with Unix in 1974)...

  Bottom line is that I was not trying to "bash" anyone (to pun
  my own phrase), but to hopefully put things back in a
  "constructive" mode where we let Sun/Cobalt know the kind of
  things we would like to see and then give them a chance to
  respond - with the understanding that the response might not
  always be "exactly" what we want to hear...

  Enjoy....

Larry Smith
SysAd ECSIS.NET
sysad@xxxxxxxxx