[ILUG-BOM] Re: Pitching Linux to corporates?

[Vivek J. Patankar]

On 9/24/06, krishnakant Mane <researchbase at gmail.com> wrote:
> dude, with gnu/linux every one is a gold customer.  and the support is
> quick enough.  if you by it from redhat, they help you.  and even
> before they do, ask the community such as ilug.
You don't need to convince me. Convince the corporates, they're the
ones you're trying to pitch the idea to. They want one rock solid
support source that will do the job for them, not a whole lot of
sources some of whom might help incase of a problem while others may
not. Microsoft, unfortunately, provides them with exactly what they
require.

> yes a golden cage indeed?  and just give all ur data to the biggest
> spy whare"M$".
> today I am only waiting for that beautiful screen reader called orca.
> and listen m$ guys, the moment that is released in late november, ur
> windows days on my computer are gone!
You are full of hostility. Why are you using this forum to vent your
anger with Microsoft, whatever the reasons for that maybe? Not a very
mature approach.
I believe the topic under discussion is how to market GNU/Linux to
corporates. Not bashing the competitor.

> this is the problem of an organisation not of gnu/linux.  and I will
> give you many cases of m$ of a similar case.  and the biggest example
> is "we are coming up with a new version.  buy it and get ur problem
> solved (with millions of other security bugs)." this is m$ for you my
> dear, this is m$ for you.
Standard answer that we hear about in every microsoft bashing session.
But this answer doesn't solve the customers problem. The customer
wants results, not ideology.

> by the way does m$ vorent that all ur data will be safe?  does sun do
> it?  do they not say "for all damages, including but not limited to
> consiquential, insidental, punitive bla bla sun or its licensers will
> not be liable or responsible?"
That's not the point. The company doesn't want another refusal of
service on the basis of a clause that states that one distro of Linux
is supported and the other is not. Also, the company is looking for
accountability. If it adopts a software for a longterm solution
someone has to be resposible for maintainance. They would be more
confortable dealing with another corporate than a team of hackers who
do this for fun.

> may be this is one case of sun or redhat.  but again why did the
> company not turn to the community?  and unlike windows which is only
> provided by M$ gnu/linux has so many enterprise brands to select from.
> an enterprise level system can be run very well by debian for example.
>  Ubuntu is a good choice, as is IBM Linux.
> what do you say?
I say that the company did not turn to the community because it's not
the CEO's grandmother's PC. It is a production server with customers
critical data. Agreed that Microsoft won't take responsibility for
data loss, backups will take care of that. But Microsoft will always
be there. The hacker who wrote a software will not always be there,
and there is no guarantees that someone else may take over from him.
Think from the customers POV and try to convince him then. You are
trying to market a product, not force your ideology on them.


-- 
Regards
Vivek