On Wed, Aug 25, 2004 at 09:52:58AM -0400, David Ho wrote: > > > Finally, do not overestimate the commercial support, to my experience; > > > the collaborative mailing lists are often as good if not better to point > > > you in the correct direction due to the diverse expertises of the ppl on > > > the list.
I would be very careful with generalisation ... > > Correct. > > > > I'd like to add, though, that commercial support is somthing you payed for, > > and which you can *claim*, so IMHO you shouldn't underestimate it. A > > guaranteed support line can be very critical at certain stages of your > > project. > > Sorry to stick my nose in your discussion, but I have a strong opinion on > commerial support. Working in a small company, we have never gotten the > level of commitment we would expect from companies like ISI (vendor of > pSOS) and Timesys. You can get the basic installation support fine. But > when you need to get into the nitty gritty detail their value is a lot less > compared to mailing lists. Would the base problem not be that the classic model of "1-year support for a fixed fee" creates a false illusion ? How can you expect a support company to get into intensive research of a complex problem if this just creates additional cost, but no additional revenue ? For a big customer, that is paying hefty yearly fees, it is obvious to do this investment, but for a small customer ... > The way I see it is being large commercial OS vendor that they are, they > seem to funnel their resource to the big customers who are willing to pay > the big bucks to get stuff done. Seems very logical. Those who pay extra for extra work, will get extra work delivered. Those who rely on the 1-year support for a fixed fee will get what remains. IMHO this is best resolved with just charging hourly: you pay for what you actually got ... > When choosing commercial support, one critical factor is their customer > base. Big fish don't go after the tiny ticks in the sea, they go for > seals. And you really have to find the right sized OS vender to give you > the attention you need. I have seen a number of "small" support companies deliver excellent support to e.g. large semiconductor companies. ** Sent via the linuxppc-embedded mail list. See http://lists.linuxppc.org/
