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HP Announces Support for Debian Linux
Posted by
samzenpus
on Mon Aug 14, 2006 01:22 PM
from the helping-hands dept.
from the helping-hands dept.
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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Another Layer of goo (Score:5, Funny)
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!
Re:Another Layer of goo (Score:2)
Other Debian distro's? (Score:4, Interesting)
Still, good for HP.
Re:Other Debian distro's? (Score:5, Informative)
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.")
Parent
Re:Other Debian distro's? (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Obligatory "the IT Crowd" quote: (Score:5, Funny)
Hello, I.T.
Have you tried turning it off and on again?
bdale garbee? (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.gag.com/~bdale/ [gag.com]
He's a former Debian Project Leader and now Linux/OSS CTO at HP.
Re:bdale garbee? (Score:3, Interesting)
This is vital (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
Re:This is vital (Score:3, Informative)
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.
.debs?! (Score:4, Insightful)
--
Phil
Re:hooray! (Score:3, Interesting)
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
Troubleshooting Linux is easier than Windows. (Score:4, Insightful)
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.
Parent
Re:Troubleshooting Linux is easier than Windows. (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Troubleshooting Linux is easier than Windows. (Score:3, Informative)
If you want to take a raw look at the files, they're located in c:\windows\system32\config\... event, application and security.
This isn't anything new. It's been around for ages.
Re:Troubleshooting Linux is easier than Windows. (Score:4, Funny)
Ahh, Windows. Stick a log file in a configuration directory, then take that configuration directory and stick it in a system file directory. Brillant!
Parent
Re:hooray! (Score:3, Insightful)
I suppose that there are always the HP-UX and ex-D
Re:hooray! (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:hooray! (Score:3, Funny)
Re:hooray! (Score:5, Funny)
> "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...
Parent
Re:hooray! (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:hooray! (Score:3, Funny)
<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
Hey, It's a start (Score:3, Insightful)
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.
Re:define "support" (Score:3, Interesting)
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]
Re:define "support" (Score:3, Interesting)
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