[ale] Linux in Atlanta's public schools

[Doug Hall]

Practice this comment:

Sure, there are companies which you could pay, that you could call upon for
help when needed. However, from personal experience, answers to the most
common problems are readily available from a Google/Bing/Whatever search.
If you have a more complicated problem, then call me or send an email to
the Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts list, asking for help. I personally would
hold off paying a third party support company until I needed them.

Many people are initially concerned about the lack of official support, but
unless you have a complicated piece of customized software (like Oracle
Financials), then your own IT people should be smart enough to make it
work. Linux is not Windows, so many IT support people will have to learn
something new. It's not that complicated, however. There's a HUGE community
of people working with it. Not having a phone number to call is a 20th
century excuse. Today, support is available in so many forms. Ask the guy
how many times he called Microsoft last year!


On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 1:11 AM, Jeff Hubbs <jhubbslist at att.net> wrote:

> This is one of the infuriating things that helped me get out of the
> business.  It's as though the people that were hired to run and manage
> computer systems aren't viewed as valuable; that they are interchangeable
> commodities.  There is a key difference with FOSS; it is meant to be
> figured out and understood deeply.  The things you're working with aren't
> *products*; they're tools that are meant to be picked up.  I wished people
> would stop to consider why this wonderful, magic "support" was made to
> exist on the other end of the phone in the first place, whereas the natural
> place for it is right under your roof.  FOSS empowers its users, but
> gaining that power requires work and dedication.
>
>
> On 7/4/13 10:52 PM, Sergio Chaves wrote:
>
>>
>> After the demos and everything else worked flawlessly, and all the cost
>> savings were evaluated, the very first question I heard was " So, who do we
>> call for support on open source software?". Before I could finish my
>> sentence, once they heard the words "community", forums, IRC, etc., one of
>> the main figures there told me how much my efforts were appreciated but if
>> they could not pickup the phone and call for support, it was no good.
>> Absolutely incredible!
>>
>
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