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Re: [LUG] Farseer enterprises - continued

 

On Friday 10 December 2004 09:33, zen14920@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
The support HAS to be there

Yes.  The task is not selling a few boxes, it is establishing a support 
infrastructure from elements that already exist, with a pyramidal support 
network from a neighbour in the office/home who knows about normal use and 
some abnormalities through a routine supporter for hardware and for software, 
and on to a second/third line support system and if necessary all the way up 
to the authors of an application and the operating system or someone who can 
patch one or the other who is not one of the authors.

GNU/Linux and other FLOSS have an advantage at the tip of that pyramid, and 
for the sophisticated users such as commonly are found here probably at the 
middle of the pyramid as well.

The layer of the ziggurat to be consolidated is the base though.  The time is 
here, and that is the task rather than worrying about exact problems.

however if a user wants a
computer for office type work then Linux should not be a problem

That's underselling it.  Actually, from the standpoint of actual use for 
actual office stuff in a supported environment Linux is already better than 
Windows, and Windows is clearly a problem in office use.  A problem that is 
controlled, but carries a cost both for control and for fixing problems when 
they get through.

That recognition by Microsoft is why they have moved from arguments on quality 
of a couple of years ago to arguments about _total_ cost of ownership.

And seems to be why they have pressed on with introducing systems that allow a 
small test on a few computers to progress to knocking over 80 000 desktops in 
the Department of Work and Pensions - an effort to reduce TCO still further 
by allowing administrators to manage more machines from one place.

My belief is that SOHO is a good place to target, both in order to earn a 
modest income and in order to provide a valued service.

Home also, provided the aim is clear, to provide people with a limited use 
machine for their normal uses, of mail, web browsing and word-processing with 
maybe a bit of adding up in a spreadsheet.  And printing it.

But a rota or consortium of maintainers and a help desk are required.
Now, the economics of call centres are well-worked out.  Is thre a frnachised 
one that would handle this?  They need not be in the same country although it 
would help.

-- 
Dr Adrian Midgley          GP  Exeter              www.defoam.net
Open Source is a necessary but not of itself sufficient condition.

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