10 Commercial Open Source Security Vendors
,----[ Quote ]
| Can companies make money by selling a product customers can get for free?
|
| Absolutely, yes.
`----
http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/osrc/article.php/3707956
Red Hat, GroundWork Expand Alliance
,----[ Quote ]
| On Tuesday, the two partners will announce an expanded partnership in which
| leading Linux vendor Red Hat will now provide 24×7 telephone premium support
| of GroundWork products and will offer either onsite or online training
| classes through GroundWork University..
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1608
Money from support? How bizarre. Microsoft offers virtually no support and it
still earns money from shoddy products, which have money funnelled to
its 'ecosystem' (read: people who clean up Registries and reinstall Windows
after a broken patch).
Related:
Which is better for technical support
,----[ Quote ]
| I have found in general that with open source support you often get
| more than what you pay for but with closed source support, by some of
| the biggest names in software, the support is often lacking in the
| value department. With open source asking for support has generally
| resulted in a solution within a week and I have never paid for it.
| However with closed source companies I have open tickets that have
| not been resolved in months. With open source I can communicate
| directly with the author(s) of the program and work closely with
| them to find a solution. Closed source on the other hand has just
| requested information, verified the bug and then informed us that
| the solution may be available in the next release of the program.
`----
http://blogs.ittoolbox.com/linux/locutus/archives/which-is-better-for-technical-support-13621
http://tinyurl.com/ygspn7
Microsoft's Genuine Advantage
,----[ Snippet ]
| A lot of managers are afraid to use Open Source Software, because it
| doesn't come with any support. Of course that isn't true. It is a classical
| piece of FUD. And then again, how much is support worth?
|
| [...]
|
| MS: Microsoft Support. Good morning, sir. Can I help you.
| IC: Windows displays some strange message on my screen.
| MS: What's the message, sir.
| IC: ReadStringFromInf: UpdSpGetLineText failed: 0xe0000102; Microsoft
| Windows is Not Present
| MS: May I have your product key, sir.
| IC: [gives completely valid product key]
| MS: Ok, sir. Can you please reboot your PC?
| IC: Will that solve the problem?
| MS: Please reboot your PC, sir.
| IC: Ok, ok, wait a minute.
| MS: Please call us again if you eXPerience any more problems. Have a
| nice day, sir. [click]
`----
http://thebeez.vnunetblogs.com/the_beez_speaks/2006/09/microsofts_genu.html
I work for MS but even I struggle to get a hot-fix
,----[ Quote ]
| The problem took 260 minutes to resolve from start to
| finish and an estimated 90 minutes of Ledgard's time,
| not including the time it took to write-up his problems...
| Still, the frustrations experienced by Ledgard give
| a salutary lesson that Microsoft's online product
| support is mediocre, at best, and will surely strike
| a chord with many long-suffering sys admins.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/10/24/ms_hot-fix_hell/
Top 10 reasons why Microsoft's Xbox 360 Customer Service is "teh br0ken".
,----[ Quote ]
| So there you have it Microsoft, the Top 10 reasons your support
| system is "teh br0ken", from my admittedly short experience with
| it. When I'd assumed a company of your size would set the standard
| for customer service, I didn't mean the standard by which to do
| better than...
|
| I realize it's probably no great revelation that their customer
| service sucks, but come on, why can't they fix this? Can they
| only fix simple things? That makes them useless for people with
| "real" problems.
`----
http://www.gamercastnetwork.com/forums/showpost.php?p=28315&postcount=68
Another Xbox Support Nightmare
,----[ Quote ]
| We seem to be receiving an increasing number of horror stories from
| Xbox 360 owners who have had to call Microsoft's Bangalore-based
| tech support call center. When your reason for calling is a
| bricked console, one would think it would be a painless and
| quick procedure to get the thing replaced or repaired.
| Apparently not the case, according to Brent from Consumerist.com
`----
http://www.gwn.com/news/story.php/id/10875/
|
|