Funny thing is, we have linux expertise in-house, and being based in Austin, there's a lot of people locally that we could pull in to create a dept. --Mephie
You guys need to get your name out. I've been hearing about LinuxCare for months now, whereas I didn't know about you guys until recent posts to Slashdot. Or have I been blind, deaf, and dumb. The dumb part is especially likely, although not really relevant.
Support may be shuffled off to a third party, which in this case is LinuxCare. However, they may not have puzzled out how to support Linux.:)
But it is cheaper to hire people are know than to retrain people in your employment again. Plus, given that people are trained for windoze, doesn't seem worthwhile to retrain them to Linux, considering how expensive those Win-train sessions are.
But the important note is that Linux IS getting shipped out there. That it get's exposure. So they buy support from a third party. They are still offering a token gesture.. even if it does show just how scared companies are of MS that they are hedging their bets and not really committing as much money into the projects.
Seriously though, it is cheaper and easier to have a third party do the support. Especially when Linux isn't their expertise.
But then again, who knows.. maybe they are just screwing around and making claims to get their stock prices up and make some money without violating any of their contracts or stepping on toes. Guess we'll just see, won't we?
- Wing - Reap the fires of the soul. - Harvest the passion of life.
Linuxcare was even mentioned by Willow Bay on CNN!! You guys really got to get the word out about your company. IMHO, Linux support is possibly the opportunity with the most growth in the entire tech market. I mean how many other service do you have every major company practically begging for.
Funny thing, that Gateway outsourcing. They don't outsource support for their corporate clients. Only for the peon clients who don't really matter, except in a collective sense.
And business desktops!! for Linux? [etc.] I am a Dell skeptic, so let's see if the actions match the words.
Why not Linux business desktops, especially from Dell's point of view? The hardware's no different from the Windoze systems their assembly lines are already set up to churn out (except that they don't really need as much horsepower, since they won't be running MS bloatware). The software to pre-load is significantly cheaper than the stuff they'd license from MS -- they can probably put command-line Linux, any of various GUIs and Corel Office Suite or StarOffice onto the machine for the price of MS Windows or MS Office alone. (If not less.)
Outsourcing the tech support means they really don't have to do much at all to make this work. Most of their overhead for adding the Linux line of Dells is in marketing, inventorying the new SKUs, creating new packaging, and so forth.
Heck, they can even make a little extra by marketing the neato-keen cachet of a Linux business system. If I were a Dell exec, I'd be all over this idea. There's really very little to lose, and a helluva lot to gain.
Outsourcing means that they can discontinue support anytime. It would have been more convincing if they committed an internal division for that support. But at this time they do not seem to think that there is a need for them to acquire Linux expertise in-house.
No necessarily a sign of diehard commitment (Score:1)
Sorry, too much can be read into too little. However, Dell's past history is a more direct indicator of their intentions.
Time to ramp up the support team. (Score:1)
Time to buy stock? The race is on.
No necessarily a sign of diehard commitment (Score:1)
Funny thing is, we have linux expertise in-house, and being based in Austin, there's a lot of people locally that we could pull in to create a dept.
--Mephie
And "we" refers to.... (Score:1)
You betcha.
--Mephie
Shameless plug (Score:1)
Good for LinuxCare (Score:1)
What's important is getting Linux out there. (Score:1)
which in this case is LinuxCare. However, they
may not have puzzled out how to support Linux.
But it is cheaper to hire people are know than to
retrain people in your employment again. Plus,
given that people are trained for windoze, doesn't
seem worthwhile to retrain them to Linux, considering
how expensive those Win-train sessions are.
But the important note is that Linux IS getting
shipped out there. That it get's exposure. So they
buy support from a third party. They are still
offering a token gesture.. even if it does show
just how scared companies are of MS that they
are hedging their bets and not really committing
as much money into the projects.
Seriously though, it is cheaper and easier to have
a third party do the support. Especially when
Linux isn't their expertise.
But then again, who knows.. maybe they are just
screwing around and making claims to get their
stock prices up and make some money without
violating any of their contracts or stepping on
toes. Guess we'll just see, won't we?
- Wing
- Reap the fires of the soul.
- Harvest the passion of life.
Outsourcing. (Score:1)
Shameless plug (Score:1)
No necessarily a sign of diehard commitment (Score:1)
Why Not a Linux Business Desktop? (Score:1)
Why not Linux business desktops, especially from Dell's point of view? The hardware's no different from the Windoze systems their assembly lines are already set up to churn out (except that they don't really need as much horsepower, since they won't be running MS bloatware). The software to pre-load is significantly cheaper than the stuff they'd license from MS -- they can probably put command-line Linux, any of various GUIs and Corel Office Suite or StarOffice onto the machine for the price of MS Windows or MS Office alone. (If not less.)
Outsourcing the tech support means they really don't have to do much at all to make this work. Most of their overhead for adding the Linux line of Dells is in marketing, inventorying the new SKUs, creating new packaging, and so forth.
Heck, they can even make a little extra by marketing the neato-keen cachet of a Linux business system. If I were a Dell exec, I'd be all over this idea. There's really very little to lose, and a helluva lot to gain.
No necessarily a sign of diehard commitment (Score:1)
No necessarily a sign of diehard commitment (Score:1)