[Info-vax] Should Oracle buy OpenVMS?

[Bill Gunshannon]

In article <49ee75b0$0$90263$14726298 at news.sunsite.dk>,
	Arne Vajhøj <arne at vajhoej.dk> writes:
> JF Mezei wrote:
>> Richard B. Gilbert wrote:
>>> The last time I looked, there were several levels of support available; 
>>> the cheapest $0.00 being web access to security patches only. For some 
>>> money you get access to a database with patches and solutions to common 
>>> problems.  For more money you get questions and answers via e-mail.  For 
>>> lots more money, you get telephone support and, for REALLY big bucks, 
>>> you get priority telephone support; e.g. someone will talk to you right 
>>> away.
>> 
>> But the question is whether outfits like RedHat, IBM etc can provide
>> comparale Linux support for much less than what Sun charges for Solaris
>> suport or whether they are all more or less the same.
> 
> Good IT people cost what good IT people cost rather independent
> of the OS.
> 
> The advantages for Linux are just:
> - competitive market meaning that the vendor can not
>    make an over normal profit
> - some of the providers has support as their core business
>    meaning that it gets priority

And the real big disadvantage is every pre-pubescent kid without a
girlfriend claims to be an "expert" and you have no way of determining
the accuracy of this until it is much too late.  (We actually had a
kid show up here claiming to have operated a consulting business
since he was a sophomore in highschool.  Wanted credit for a bunch
of the classes because being a professional he already knew all of
that stuff.  Dropped out and restarted at least twice.  He never graduated.

> 
> The move to Linux are not driven by low support cost but by:
> - cheap HW (x86-64)
> - cheap SW
> - lots of software available
> - lots of people with Linux skills available

Don't forget hype.  Because there are other much better options for which
all of those apply, except maybe the last one.  But then, the actual value
of those "people with Linux skills" is very dubious.

bill

-- 
Bill Gunshannon          |  de-moc-ra-cy (di mok' ra see) n.  Three wolves
billg999 at cs.scranton.edu |  and a sheep voting on what's for dinner.
University of Scranton   |
Scranton, Pennsylvania   |         #include <std.disclaimer.h>