[ale] OT vision computers etal

[Scott Castaline]

Geoffrey wrote:
> Christopher Fowler wrote:
>   
>> On Fri, 2006-02-24 at 07:56 -0500, Geoffrey wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> You're not going to get that from Dell.
>>>       
>> If your business you can.  I've installed Linux on PE's and have had
>> issues.  Dell did support Linux for those servers _but_ they suck at it.
>>     
>
> This is my point.  Lousy service is not service.  Look folks, if there's 
> one thing I've learned, small businesses need someone local to address 
> these kind of issues.  If you're not a big enough fish, they'll sell to 
> you, but you're really not going to get reasonable support.  Why pay 
> extra for something that's not going to do you any good?
>
>   
>> As always I ended up having to figure it out on my own.  Our software
>> requires FC2 and all Dell support I believe is RHEL 4.  Every time I
>> needed help getting the PERC controller operational they kept pushing a
>> RHEL 4 driver down my throat.  2.4.X driver is useless on a 2.6.X
>> machine.  Past that they were pretty much useless.
>>     
>
> Bingo.
>
>   
>> I've been to Dell's corporate in Austin and have worked with a
>> department that is responsible for UNIX and Linux.  Dell will sell you a
>> SUN box if you require it.  Whatever it takes to get the business.  This
>> group was also responsible for the Linux cluster support on their server
>> equipment.  The problem is that this is a specialized group at Dell.
>> Could be called SpecOps.  If you were not a large 3000 node customer or
>> a branch of the military then you never talked to these people.  They
>> were more there for doing tests, research, setup, and finally support
>> for some of the large accounts running stuff other than Windoze.  These
>> guys and gals were very knowledgeable. Unfortunately a casual company
>> that needs Linux and buys a few PE2850 only gets to speak to bots.
>> They'll end up being on their own if they want to install anything other
>> tan RHEL 4.  
>>     
>
> Thank you, the witness may step down... I rest my case. :)
>
>   
Gee whiz, I can hear the theme song from Perry Mason....