[TriLUG] Linux and ATT

[Lug]

Linux has only been semi-embraced by management in the past year or so in
the particular organization I support within AT&T.  It was an issue of
cost and performance. ...cost being low, and performance being high.
Before this (and still to a large degree) it was Sun Solaris (mostly on
Sparc) and HP-UX on various HP hardware platforms.  I know of one
specialized application (for PBX billing management) that runs on UnixWare
(ug).

The profit margins with the "userland" offers is so slim in current
markets that nobody can really afford to support a desktop operating
system like Linux.  Having been a LAN manager over LANs hosting in excess
of 1000 users, I can say that I wouldn't want to have to support users
possessing the root account on any desktop *NIX box.

I will say however that they "should" provide limited support for certain
version of Linux and make the known configuration "gotchas" available on
their support web site.  They should make it known in advance, that Linux
will work, but if you use it you're on your own.  Ipass in Raleigh was
doing this when I used them about two years ago.  Those guys were great :-)

I also believe that those who get "dissed" by AT&T for using Linux should
drop service, and tell them why.  In fact, it's worth the wait to get a
3rd level manager on the phone and an E-Mail address for him/her and
his/her boss so you can send the message.  These people take notice when
people drop service!  If you do this, try to be polite and professional.
I've spent far too much time convincing them that it's NOT an evil hackers
operating system and that there is a place for it on their networks...so
far, we're making great headway :-)

Lug

On Fri, 2002-04-05 at 12:04, Lug wrote:
>I spend most of my day supporting a team of about 40 people (give or take
>a few) at AT&T and I can assure you that there are certain critical
>enterprise functions here that will NOT occur without Linux.


Good. What was it before Linux? Is Linux getting the job done faster,
cheaper, or better?

>Just because they won't support you as a Linux user, doesn't mean they
>aren't in tune with Linux and free software markets.


Ok, fair enough. They're in tune with Linux as infrastructure but not as
desktop software.

Ah well.

matt

-- 
Matt Matthews   \ ph: 919.660.2811    \ Use GNU/Linux _o) w00t
Duke Univ., Postdoc\ jvmatthe at math.duke.edu \____________  /\\
Dept. of Mathematics\ http://www.math.duke.edu/~jvmatthe/ \ _\_V

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