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

[Carrie Bartkowiak <ravencarrie@xxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 2 Jan 2002 20:45:53 -0500 (EST), baltimoremd@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
mumbled something like:
>I do know, from posts to this list and email I've received that a
>significant number of RaQ owners will/would not buy another Cobalt
>product....based on the factors in the paragraph above.

Within the next week I'll be getting a whitebox with Plesk on it. 
Before March I'll have another, and hopefully by July I'll have a few 
more. Those might not even have Plesk, who knows? But being that it's 
written in PHP and I can very easily plug my own scripts in it, I'll 
probably keep it... why reinvent the wheel?

The RaQ4's (both i and r) are great little machines for hosting web 
sites that don't need a boatload of functionality... and even some 
sites that do.  It's a fantastic product to move a new server 
administrator into the field at a nice slow pace, doing most of the 
work for him/her. 
Thom, your main gripe is with majordomo... but think about it, you're 
a real majordomo power-user. Most new hosts aren't. Hell, I'd dare 
say that most new hosts have never had their own web site, they're 
just hopping into the field for the money potential. So what these 
little blue beasts do is enough to get those people by until they've 
either learned enough or gotten enough clients that they need to move 
to something more (either hardware or software).

Think of these little blue boxes like MS's Windows architecture... it 
does most everything for you. It may not do it perfectly, may not do 
it to its full potential, and may not do it the way *you* in 
particular want it to, but it *does* do it in some way. That's how 
the Cobalts work.
And just like with Windows, when you get tired of bugs and not having 
full control over your system, you move to Linux... when you get 
tired of your Cobalt having bugs or not having full control over your 
system, you'll move to a plain Linux box.

I'll keep at least one of my RaQs... for a while, at least (my 
clients are pretty much ingrained into it)... but I won't get another 
one. It was what I needed, when I needed it; but I no longer need the 
training wheels and I *do* need more control over my OS. Also 
watching 100 concurrent WWWThreads users bring a RaQ4i to its knees 
has seriously shaken my confidence in the RaQs.  I need more power! 
(Ruff ruff)

Now, perhaps, if Cobalt came out with a RaQ that had 1Ghz processor 
and could take at least a gig of RAM, I might cock my eyebrow... but 
the price on them would still be too high. I can build my own box and 
put a different GUI on it (if I want to) for far less money, and have 
things run the way *I* want them to.

In my eyes, a Cobalt is a bike with training wheels. A very small, 
limited bike. But it *does* get you from A to B when you need it to.

Maybe for all of the users here who are constantly complaining about 
what the RaQ doesn't do, or should do, or how Cobalt is so... evil? 
greedy?...  for wanting to make money (I mean come on... don't we 
all??)... well, maybe it's time they kicked off the training wheels, 
got a real whitebox, and put the wheels up on eBay for some other 
newbie host that needs 'em.

Yes, if your washing machine didn't do what it advertised, Maytag 
would have to recall it and fix it. But then again, if they didn't, 
what would YOU do? In the end, it's not Maytag's responsibility to 
keep your clothes clean... it's yours. Just like the Firestone tire 
blowout incident; hundreds of people were complaining that Ford 
wasn't replacing tires fast enough. Well, excuse me, but if *my* kids 
were riding on those tires, I'd have gone out and BOUGHT new ones 
until the recall got around to my area. It's MY responsibility to 
make sure my kids are riding on safe tires.
If my washing machine wasn't doing what I wanted it to, I'd either 
take it back or sell it.. and then I'd get a new one. It's MY 
responsibility to make sure my kids have clean clothes.

And as a host, if my RaQ isn't delivering the stability or security 
that I need it to (slow updates, patches, etc.), it's still MY 
responsibility to make sure that my clients' data is safe and their 
sites do what they need to do... it's not Cobalt's responsibility to 
take care of my clients or my web sites. 
Being that it's MY responsibility to see to my own needs and the nees 
of my clients, I'm taking responsibility and getting a different 
server. One that *will* do what it needs to do and can handle what it 
needs to handle. My clients don't pay Cobalt, they pay me. It's my 
responsibility to deliver, and that's what I'm doing. Whether Cobalt 
keeps up with my growing needs or not. 

Just for the record, Rackshack has 1Ghz whiteboxes for $99/mo with 
300 GIGS of transfer included... even if you did build your own box 
you couldn't colocate it anywhere and get that much transfer for that 
price. Believe me, I've looked. You even get your choice between 
Plesk (my recommendation, and Plesk has an easy Raq-to-Plesk 
migration utility) or Ensim (looks like it tried to be the Cobalt GUI 
with a bit more functionality). If you don't like either of those, 
wipe the damn box and put webmin on it.
http://www.rackshack-affiliates.net/t.asp?id=1102

And also for the record, Rackshack's support forums rival this list 
in terms of community members helping each other out. If you think a 
whitebox with Plesk on it might be too much for you, head on over to 
the support forums (they're open to everyone) and take a look at some 
of the detailed, instructional posts you'll find there. And the Plesk 
support team is awesome in helping you out if you get stuck (they've 
got their own support forums as well *and* they answer their 
emails!). If you've had a RaQ for a year or more, it's time you 
kicked off the training wheels, too.

Come on, Cobalt sufferers... come with me... walk towards the 
light... (or is that "white"? Hehe.)
--
CarrieB