On Wed, 8 Dec 2004, Louis Guillaume wrote:

[...]

> I really don't want this project to go down the RedHat road just because they 
> have the kind of support that is acceptable. Considering a successful NetBSD

At least for the company I used to work for until recently this was 
elementary. We were using Redmond software wherever possible. The reason 
was that everybody involved in doing administrative tasks on the server 
systems was familar with Redmond OS, but no one with GNU Linux, let alone 
Un*x or even NetBSD - except for me.

They were simply afraid of not be able to keep their systems up and 
running in case of me leaving the company or simply being sick or 
otherwise unable to accomplish this task.

Mailing lists (especially the NetBSD ones) are great, but they don't offer 
real-time support. In fact, a telephone support available at least during 
normal business hours would have been what they were looking for in order 
to feel "safe" with choosing NetBSD.

From my point of view (as a systems administrator it's the technical, of 
course) I still feel that "everybody" in the world should use the kind of 
tools (= hardware, software, whatever) that do what "everybody" needs to 
get done.

However, I must admit that if I change my viewpoint I can also understand 
a company's decision to stick with what they know, even if there are 
better alternatives out there. They have to do things for their customers, 
they have to care for their employees - they have run a company. After 
all, they prefer using tools that they know of they work, and that they 
can always handle "themselves". They have to eliminate all single points 
of failure, and actually I even did this myself - in the IT area. From a 
more global, a company-wide viewpoint, they did nothing else.

The bad feeling I have about this case is that it is probably one of the 
very few situations where NetBSD gets "punished" for something it is not 
responsible for: Since this support issue is not directly related to 
NetBSD and its features - or bugs -, I think there is absolutely nothing 
we can do about it.

Maybe we simply should keep in mind what Sydney Youngblood sang back in 
the nineties: "All we can do is sit and wait."

Bye, K&K,
T-Zee

PS: Sorry for not providing any solutions to your actual problem. I just 
wanted to let you know that "you are not alone". :-)
-- 
thiesi@NetWork23.Sytes.NET ---- NetBSD: Power to the people!
Tel.: ++49-(0)171-416 05 09 -- Fax: ++49-(0)171-134 16 05 09
Mirko Thiesen, Soemmeringstrasse 41, D-10589 Berlin, Germany
              "We're with you all the way, mostly"