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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.
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 25 Comments More /

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  • 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!

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

    by crunch_ca (972937) on Monday August 14 2006, @01:27PM (#15903995) Homepage
    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, @01:35PM (#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.

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

    by russ1337 (938915) on Monday August 14 2006, @01:35PM (#15904054)
    *Ring Ring*
    Hello, I.T.
    Have you tried turning it off and on again?

  • bdale garbee? (Score:5, Informative)

    by xoundmind (932373) on Monday August 14 2006, @01:49PM (#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.)

  • This is vital (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Almahtar (991773) on Monday August 14 2006, @01:58PM (#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.

  • .debs?! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by ldspartan (14035) on Monday August 14 2006, @03:36PM (#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

    • 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.
      • 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?

      • Re:hooray! (Score:5, Funny)

        by chris_mahan (256577) <chris.mahan@gmail.com> on Monday August 14 2006, @02:25PM (#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, @02:31PM (#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.

      • <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.

    • 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]

          • 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

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