RE: [cobalt-users] Support, Warranty and Hype

["Chris Demain" <cdemain@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

>
> I'm not sure if it's coincidence....I think it's just plain arrogant.
> After all, pre-Sun purchase Cobalt was still fabricating stories about
> features and shipping RaQs with major flaws.
>
> I really think Cobalt and Sun depend on their customers NOT knowing a lot
> about system admin and the web hosting business...that way they can
> produce the flawed products, sell them to the unsuspecting, and, as you've
> mentioned, use the fixes as a cash cow.

#ifdef RANT

Hardly.  Welcome to Linux.  This is exactly how it works.  Release early,
release often (ok, this latter part's been lacking since the Sun takeover).
Bug fixes are the name of the game.  Here's the trick though: how do you
make money selling a free OS?  Ask Red Hat.  They'll tell you that the
answer that has worked for them is "support".  By which we don't mean
updates and bug fixes, but helping people learn.  What're your alternatives?
Windows? *HA!* Aside from not being able to release an OS that can reliably
host a web site, they ALSO charge per-incident for tech support.  Linux?
OK, roll-your-own is for experts ... so you go with someone like Red Hat ...
who charges minimal amounts for the OS, nothing if you download it (sound
familiar?) but a nominal fee to read the manual for you.  Want a totally
free solution? It's available ... you just have to invest the time (ah ha!
but time == money) to learn it.  In the hacker vernacular: "Use The Source,
Luke."
I would think it closer to the truth that Sun uses those proceeds to fund
the support itself, so that the Cobalt division is more self-sustaining.
Hardware, even appliance hardware, is a commodity market with microscopic
margins.  For Sun's "cash cow" look to Solaris "big iron" Enterprise servers
and storage arrays.  Cobalt, I think, is a way for Sun to make product
available to smaller hosts who can't afford that Big Iron.  They've been in
the UNIX business longer than Cisco's been in the network busines, and
they're exactly the same kind of 800 lb. gorilla.

#include <disclaim.h>

#endif //RANT

--
Chris Demain                                     cdemain@xxxxxxxxxxx
Systems Administrator                           (813) 839-7242 x3022
Sago Networks                              <http://www.sagonet.com/>
--
"The world is a very strange carrot, but the farmer is not worried at all"