Quid pro quo ignores market reality

Posted May 11, 2007 1:58 UTC (Fri) by hazelsct (guest, #3659)
In reply to: Quid pro quo by man_ls
Parent article: A think tank's view of free software

So what you're saying is that a small business should not expect to get professional-level support in OSS. Which is why we are not getting any traction in the SMB sector. Like I said.

To answer your question, we already have a 100-strong company full of MCSEs doing business with our four-person shop, which sends techs out to our site on an hourly as-needed basis (installation, troubleshooting, etc.). And that four our TWO Windows users (one Mac, and me on Linux)! And there are multiple other businesses waiting in line behind them who could take our contract. They can set up a Windows server for us any time we say the word. But thanks in large part to me, we want(ed) to give Linux a try.

What a pathetic attitude. If this is how the community feels SMBs should be treated, then OSS will never get anywhere in this sector, while Microsoft continues to eat our lunch. And in the US at least, that's a very big sector to just walk away from.

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Quid pro quo ignores market reality

Posted May 11, 2007 6:09 UTC (Fri) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link] (3 responses)

You did not answer my question, and it seems you did not understand my point, which is: maybe professional-level support can be provided by a one-man shop as well as by a 100-strong company. I don't know why there are so few RHCEs in your area and frankly I don't care, but maybe it is because SMBs don't want to do business with those who are small. On purely business concerns, the few big shops have to concentrate on the big companies which require their services.

What your comment suggests is that there are untapped business opportunities waiting for entrepreneurs to give them support, but we already knew that. So people, get certified and open your support company!

Quid pro quo ignores market reality

Posted May 11, 2007 12:46 UTC (Fri) by sepreece (guest, #19270) [Link]

Note, though, that "There's a great opportunity here" doesn't really respond to the "think tank" point - support is a problem, still.

Quid pro quo ignores market reality

Posted May 11, 2007 20:28 UTC (Fri) by hazelsct (guest, #3659) [Link] (1 responses)

You're right, I didn't answer your question, sorry. We wouldn't consider a one-man Windows support shop either, for the same reason. In case I wasn't clear, that reason is: there's no redundancy in case something happens to the one man. Whether that's retiring to Jamaica, or getting hit by a bus, or having to spend a week taking care of a sick relative, any of these things which took this person away would present a major problem for us if something went wrong.

Our clients don't depend on us in the same mission-critical day-to-day manner, so there's no valid comparison there.

And I agree that there's a real opportunity here...

Quid pro quo ignores market reality

Posted May 12, 2007 0:43 UTC (Sat) by man_ls (guest, #15091) [Link]

Thanks for clarifying that. I have long thought about setting up a support shop for Linux machines, as I'm sure other LWN readers have; in fact it is only by chance that I did not do it three years ago, but the possibility is always there. Knowing the conditions of "our" future customer base is always valuable, so it was not an idle question.

Maybe a federation or cooperative would be a better model for one-man operations; probably a middle-sized company would inspire more confidence into customers.