Re: Future of linux...

[Guy Rouillier <guy-rouillier speakeasy net>]

Angel Gabriel wrote:

> MS Guy to director:
> We have a support service that is very low cost, and out telephone staff
> are specially trained to answer and question
>
> Linux Guy:
> Our support is free, from the people that actually write our software,
> not from people that are trained to answer support queries

There's the rub.  Microsoft is a company.  You may not like them, but 
you know where they are and you can pick up the phone and call them 
(which I've done several times as a developer - their MSDN tech support 
is actually pretty good.)  Many of the Linux developers are very bright, 
and I use Linux at home when I can (can't figure out how to connect to 
CheckPoint firewall at work.)  But no open source developer has made any 
commitment to answer any questions, nor even to stay with the product. 
Redhat and Mandrake aren't selling software (since you can download it 
free), they are selling the security of knowing you have someone to call 
if you need to.

--
Guy Rouillier