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HP Announces Support for Debian Linux

Posted by samzenpus on Mon Aug 14, 2006 12:22 PM
from the helping-hands dept.
HP Software Linux
Bain writes "PC World reports that HP is to offer support for Debian Linux on its ProLiant and HP BladeSystem servers. Support will be provided by HP telephone operators rather than the discussion-group method that current Debian users rely on. The move to support Debian continues HP's relationship with the community-based OS, which stretches back to 1995."
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HP Announces Support for Debian Linux 50 Comments More /

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  • Another Layer of goo (Score:5, Funny)

    by tacocat (527354) <tallison1@@@twmi...rr...com> on Monday August 14 2006, @12:26PM (#15903984)

    So when I call HP for support, I can watch for their posting on the Debian mailing list to find out the answer? This should be fun!

    • Supposedly, they've rehired Bruce Perens to operate the 1-man call center.

    • That's the beauty of open-source software--anybody can support it and become an expert just by examining the code. I'm confident HP's support technicians will have an intimate knowledge of administering and running Debian and will consistently provide helpful and accurate answers to all questions that customers bring to them . . .

      *snicker*

      • I'm confident HP's support technicians will have an intimate knowledge of administering and running Debian and will consistently provide helpful and accurate answers

        It's tough to teach an old dog new tricks. Especially since the HP support folk are just used to saying: Download the latest Windows Update patches, restart your pc, and try again.
        • You know, this might sound a little crazy, but maybe they'll actually hire new support staff, preferably people with experience using debian.
        • So,

          How hard will it be to teach them say "aptitude update && aptitude dist-upgrade"??
          • tech: ok, open a command prompt
            customer: you mean like bash?
            tech: uh, yeah, sure, try that, now type attitude update
            customer: command not found
            tech: really? oh wait, this one is weird, try a-p-t-i-t-u-d-e update
            customer: there we go
            tech: now when that's finished type attitude d-i-s-t minus upgrade
            customer: command not found. try it again.
            tech: a-p-t-i-t-u-d-e space d-i-s-t minus sign upgrade
            customer: there we go
            tech: next time RTFM and don't call me. you interrupted my new addiction, frozen bu

    • Knoppix is a linux distroy anyone can use, the automated hardware detection etc is supurb. The DVD 4.0 version does demonstrate a lot of the incompatability issues he's talking about though. because knoppix has about 6 GB of applications (they're compressed on the DVD image) many of the applications are broken.

      Debian is the distro Knoppix is based of of, so it has really good hardware detection, but the "stable" version is using the "older" proven stable detection routines. That means it doesn't configure

      • "Debian is "ready" for the desktop...", but what does this have to do with HP providing support for "its ProLiant and HP BladeSystem servers"? Why install a GUI, let alone Flash, for a server? Interesting post, but somewhat off topic...

  • Other Debian distro's? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by crunch_ca (972937) on Monday August 14 2006, @12:27PM (#15903995)
    Does that include support for other Debian distributions (like Ubuntu)? What about testing and unstable? The article is pretty light on what's actually covered.

    Still, good for HP.

    • Re:Other Debian distro's? (Score:5, Informative)

      by neonprimetime (528653) on Monday August 14 2006, @12:35PM (#15904053)
      From cnet [com.com]

      HP's offer will apply to the current "Sarge" version 3 of Debian and to version 4, "Etch," due in December. (Debian versions are named after characters in the movie "Toy Story.")
      • "We've had a number of customers continuing to ask us to have broader support for Debian," and HP decided to oblige, said Jeffrey Wade, worldwide marketing manager at HP's Open Source and Linux Organization.

        I thought the above quote from the CNet article was also particularly interesting. Hooray for those HP customers that spoke up. When HP says "a number of customers", I assume they don't just mean 5 or 10.
    • Does that include support for other Debian distributions (like Ubuntu)? What about testing and unstable? The article is pretty light on what's actually covered.

      Since it's on servers, I find it natural that they support only stable. Testing/unstable is completely out of the question for that kind of support, too much of a moving target. Maybe you're running some backports on stable because of its age but not as the distro. As for Ubuntu, don't they have their own support program?

      Still, good for HP.

      A bunch of

  • Obligatory "the IT Crowd" quote: (Score:5, Funny)

    by russ1337 (938915) on Monday August 14 2006, @12:35PM (#15904054)
    *Ring Ring*
    Hello, I.T.
    Have you tried turning it off and on again?
  • How many of these do we get nowadays? I've read enough bits about many companies "supporting" linux in one form or another. Dell, HP, Real, even Microsoft has a Linux lab. Yahoo loves the Linux, Google loves the Linux, IBM loves the Linux, SCO owns the Linux.

    So where is Linux in all of this? Sure, some of the companies mentioned above have actually shown their support for Linux. Some others seem not to go much further than lip service. Dell comes to mind -- couldn't hunt down a preinstalled Linux box

  • bdale garbee? (Score:5, Informative)

    by xoundmind (932373) on Monday August 14 2006, @12:49PM (#15904168)
    I'd be interested to know how much this gentleman had to do with it:
    http://www.gag.com/~bdale/ [gag.com]
    He's a former Debian Project Leader and now Linux/OSS CTO at HP.
    • It is possible that this guy has something to do with it but HP has had connections to Debian for a while. Bruce Perens was "Senior Global Strategist for Linux and Open Source" for two years at HP until they fired him for "Microsoft-baiting". Bruce Perens was the second Debian Project Leader. (Ever wonder why Debian releases are named after Toy Story characters? Bruce also worked for Pixar.)
  • Outsourced HP Linux support? This could get ugly.

  • Somebody ought to say it:

    Well done, HP! I hope this boosts your sales!

    And on the day HP overtakes Dell in PC sales, I'll be opening the champagne.

  • HP can barely handle the point and click associated with RHEL and Windows. I'm at a loss as to who in that company is going to support Debian. I know it's surely not their L1 or L2 phone techs.

    • HP can barely handle the point and click associated with RHEL and Windows. I'm at a loss as to who in that company is going to support Debian. I know it's surely not their L1 or L2 phone techs.

      Only time will tell I guess but they do have the know-how in the company... since Debian is used as an internal development platform for Linux and they also host one full primary mirror site.

      HP also has a handful of employees that are Debian developers.

      Source:http://opensource.hp.com/opensource_project s.html [hp.com]

      • Well I assumed as much, most major tech corporations today have their fingers in all sorts of open source projects. What do you think the odds of joe schmoe trying to compile the latest kernel getting help from those guys are though? In my experience I've found there's a VERY large void between the lemmings and the experts at HP, and 9 times out of 10, you get stuck in that void trying to get support.
          • I don't buy it. HP fully supports RHEL and SLES, and have for quite some time, and again I've yet to find a clued tech among their L1 or L2. It takes engineering involvement to get someone who even knows what a kernel is. The only reason I've EVER managed to come in contact with them is because they OEM our hardware.

            I think the slashdot community is out of touch with who is really running linux. I can't even begin to guesstimate the amount of clueless windows admins who were thrown a linux box and to

  • This is vital (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Almahtar (991773) on Monday August 14 2006, @12:58PM (#15904223) Journal
    Support is vital for any OS to be taken seriously where downtime is unacceptable. I know way too many IT guys who would love to run some form of *nix for their servers, but their CEO's wouldn't let them. The reason? If there's a problem they can't fix, they resort to googling, mailing lists, forums, etc: they're pretty boned.

    If there's a Windows problem they can't fix they can fly someone in from Redmond to get the job done in a few hours. Unfortunately Red Hat can't compete with that (yet). If minutes of downtime = millions in losses, Official support that always gets the job done is a requirement that can't be ignored.
    • Unfortunately Red Hat can't compete with that (yet)

      They sure are ramping up though. They're heavily recruiting. I went through a round of interviews with them for a travelling support position.

      When I say travelling, I mean 95% of your job is travelling to other sites.

  • I would guess this is going to be very inexpensive for HP to do. The article doesn't say, but I assume they're going to be selling the servers with Debian preinstalled, in which case not much should go wrong, and it should be easy to support. And if a lot of their customers have already been buying servers and installing Linux distros on them themselves, HP is probably already getting tech support calls from them (even if they're phrased as hardware support calls). The difference would be that now, the cust

  • As someone who recently tried to install Debian on a newish ProLiant, and failed miserably because of unsupported hardware, I'm happy to see this announcement. It means that HP will be using hardware for which Linux drivers already exist, and that the Debian installer will be able to load those drivers into the kernel at install-time.

    The bigger bonus is that if vanilla Debian can do it, any Linux disto can: Ubuntu, Gentoo, Slackware, whatever.
  • HP's OpenView product mentions support for Debian. Unfortunately, this idea of support means that you have configure your Debian box to work with RPMs and then try and install them.
  • Are they kidding. The last version was only supported for one year after the previous version. So I'm going to go tell the PHB we should start using a distribution that should be upgraded every other year. Unless they can offer longer version support I don't see this helping.
    Those of us working in the real world don't change versions unless we have to, because it lowers our TCO.
    I know a data center that was still using RH8 on some of their servers up until 4 months ago and last year I talked with

  • .debs?! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ldspartan (14035) on Monday August 14 2006, @02:36PM (#15905163) Homepage
    Does this mean I'll be able to get debian packages of the tools for my DL380 Gen4 without having to do magic with alien and their crap ass RPMs?

    --
    Phil
    • This is good to hear, but as always implementation is everything. It will be interesting to watch as their service reps grapple with an entirely new system. We all know how great telephone service is for Windows.


      "Ok, now open the control panel."
      "What control panel?"
      "Click Start, then click control panel."
      "Start? What Start?"

      • Re:hooray! (Score:5, Funny)

        by chris_mahan (256577) <chris.mahan@gmail.com> on Monday August 14 2006, @01:25PM (#15904480) Homepage
        > "Ok, now open the control panel."
        > "What control panel?"
        > "Click Start, then click control panel."
        > "Start? What Start?"

        Exasperated tech support guy takes a deep breath to stop from screaming.
        "Ok, use the mouse, point to the lower left of the screen..."
        "What mouse?"
        "Arrrgghhh!!!!"

        Level two support:
        "Do you have ssh?"
        "Of course"
        "Ok, what the ip address and the root password?"
        "Nice try."
        "Well, I can't help you if you don't give me the root password."
        "You said it."
        "I said what?"
        "You can't help me."

        Level three uber-tech-support from hell:
        "Ah, yes, I can see what the problem is."
        "You can?"
        "Of course. Lemme fix it"
        "But how can you get in? You don't even have an account on the server?"
        "Correction, it's you that doesn't have an account... anymore. BWAHAHAHA."

        Sorry. I'll go back to coding crappy corporate proprietary code...

      • Re:hooray! (Score:5, Insightful)

        by timeOday (582209) on Monday August 14 2006, @01:31PM (#15904542)
        This is good to hear, but as always implementation is everything.
        I disagree, in this case it's the declaration of support that matters. Am I ever going to actually call HP for debian support? No, I'll search the web like usual. But when spec'ing out the system, it could help to say my OS of choice is "supported" by HP. And this is a very good indication that all the hardware will work, even on other distros.

    • it will help give Linux a more serious look for the PHB out there..

      Now why am I imagining some ominous music and a fade to black?

      I feel very, very bad for the poor folks answering the help line in 3-4 years when there are hundreds of small companies without someone who knows what they are doing. You think helpline support for Windows is bad? Wait until you've got to help someone who's only ever used Windows with their Debian install. And no, you can't tell them to RTFM.

      /shudder

      • I feel very, very bad for the poor folks answering the help line in 3-4 years when there are hundreds of small companies without someone who knows what they are doing. You think helpline support for Windows is bad? Wait until you've got to help someone who's only ever used Windows with their Debian install. And no, you can't tell them to RTFM.
        In my experience, working through the boot process of a Linux box is incredibly simple compared to Windows.

        Remember, this won't be troubleshooting Apache/SSL or anything. This will be determining why the OS doesn't like the hardware and whether it is an OS problem or hardware problem.
      • As an ex-HP-support user, sometimes it wasn't obvious that their helpdesk people had ever used Windows. The front-line people had been given a script, and followed it with no comprehension. When (in the case of the laptop hardware problems that I was logging at the time) it was impossible to follow their instructions, the only solution was to box it up and send it back. With a laptop that's feasible; just swap for another one - but with a server it isn't.

        I suppose that there are always the HP-UX and ex-D
      • Years ago, I use to work at HP. While I was a developer, I did know a few folks in the help group for our product. One of the things that I found out is that they had a big QA DB that handled the vast majority of questions that ppl had. That DB was seperate from what was on the internet (it was 1991; no web) and to the best of my knowledge, still is. Combine that with the famous award winning online linux support, and I suspect that HP will offer cheaper superior support to what anybody delivers on Windows.
      • Windows Version:

        Poor Folk: I have a problem with my Windows computer.
        Help Desk: Reboot.

        Debian Version:

        Poor Folk: I have a problem with my Debian computer.
        Help Desk: apt-get update && apt-get upgrade
      • I feel very, very bad for the poor folks answering the help line in 3-4 years when there are hundreds of small companies without someone who knows what they are doing.
        What, you mean I can't just hire somebody with no clue how to do their job, and rely on the HP helpdesk to give them a free education?

      • <troll>And I'm so glad it's not bloody Ubuntu!</troll>

        Heh. Or Gentoo.

        Can you imagine phone support for Gentoo?

        Customer: "I try to run Firefox, but it says "command not found".
        Support: "Okay, Sir, just type emerge firefox"
        Customer: "Okay."
        Support [45 minutes later]: "Sir?"
        Customer: "It's still compiling."
        Support: "Ah, okay."
        Customer [30 minutes later]: "Okay, done, but now it crashes."
        Support: "Okay, I'll log in remotely."
        Support [15 minutes later]: "I don't know how you di

    • I think this is a distro for people who already know/whant to learn GNU/Linux. pretty useless for me.

      But it's a start. HP offers Debian support. Next comes Company X. Then Company Y. Now there is competition, cause 3 companies support Debian. HP decides they want to jump out ahead of the crowd, so they start supporting Ubuntu and Fedora. Company X and Y slowly follow suite. The process continues. Boom, Linux is now part of every Server company's business plan.

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