RE: graphical file managers

On Wed, 15 Oct 2003, Pablo Vieira wrote:

> [email protected]:
> 
> > > The problem with Linux is that even if you paid your distro 
> > > manufacturer for the box, he's not responsible for the software 
> > > included in the distro, so who's the one to blame if 
> > something doesn't 
> > > work?
> > 
> > If you've paid for your distro, and preferably if you have a 
> > proper support contract, then you have every right to yell at 
> > the distro vendor when they don't deliver the level of 
> > support you've paid for. It's up to the market to then 
> > determine which distro vendors deliver on their promises, and 
> > which just want to flog CDs full of other people's software 
> > for large margins.
> 
> You mean RedHat -for instance- is responsible for, let's say, OpenOffice
> not opening properly a certain file format? (just an hypothesis, I'm not
> talking about actual facts)

If they've claimed that it should open that file format, and you have paid
them an acceptable fee for their support services, yes. Of course, you may
find that RH's price is too steep, in which case you could try approaching
one or more of the OpenOffice developers directly. I'm sure someone will
bite, if your expectations are reasonable.

> > > Is it reasonable to expect that a frustrated corporate user goes 
> > > hunting for responses in user groups and tries to hide his or her 
> > > frustration so he doesn't "provoke" the gurus?
> > 
> > Would you try and get "corporate support" for SAP, or Oracle 
> > from a volunteer user group? Get your wallet out and pay for 
> > proper support - either from the vendor, or a local business 
> > that you feel you can trust.
> 
> Sorry if you got me wrong, I was meaning the same. I was just asuming
> paying support to the distro vendor doesn't make them responsible for
> every piece of software you'll find inside their CDs. I find it hard to
> believe that the people at RedHat or Mandrake or Suse have the knowledge
> about all the software in their distros, let alone the responsibility
> for the faulty bits, but I'd be happy to learn otherwise!!

Have a look at the patches that RH introduce to most of the packages
included in their distro, and who creates them (often internal RH people).
Debian, similarly, though being a volunteer project, you may find it hard to
coerce them into giving your problem priority simply by application of cold,
hard cash. SuSE generate quite a few patches, and Mandrake generate some.

> (I'm positive that no local vendor around here -Spain- does have such
> knowledge and responsibility.)

If so, there's a business opportunity for you. ;-)

> Pablo

Best Regards,
Alex.
-- 
Alex Butcher      Brainbench MVP for Internet Security: www.brainbench.com
Bristol, UK                      Need reliable and secure network systems?
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