[TriLUG] Red Hat 7.3 - for The Alchemist (mild flame)

[Chris Hedemark]

(marked up for the humor-impaired... didn't realize there were so many)

On Tue, 2002-05-07 at 12:56, Kevin - The Alchemist - Sonney wrote:
> Ahahahahaha! Unless John has control over the pricing structures, about
> all he can do is get you his (not very significat) employee discount. 

Kevin, it would have worked if you had done "modprobe humor"

> As for the rest - Chris, that was uncalled for. Totally uncalled for. 

Kevin, I think you're mistaken.  I didn't pick Nalin out of a crowd and
start lobbing criticisms at him completely unprovoked.  While I'm not
offended by your disagreement with my opinion, I think it is fair to
point out that your opinion was less called for than mine (in that I was
responding directly to a criticism lobbed my way, while you're just
jumping into the middle of a spat between two people and taking sides). 
I'm not upset that your put your opinion in there (that's what a public
mailing list is for) but I think it is a bit arrogant of you to try to
invalidate my opinion about comments that were sent to my attention.

> I
> have to back James and Nalin on this - 

<humor> Of course.  I'm not surprised.  You're only allowed to agree
with me once or twice a year and I think you've already blown your quota
for the year. </humor>

> unless the marketing/office
> people are on the list, the only way to get this sort of feedback to
> them is via sales at redhat.com

That address seems to go to /dev/null.  It doesn't bounce, but it
doesn't produce any sort of useful responses either (a human-written
"thank you" would qualify).

> - since AFAIK, engineering has about as
> much a chance of getting the price changed as marketing does of
> compiling OpenAFS by themselves. 

Red Hat is bigger than it used to be, but not all that big.  It's
actually still really small as companies go.  I don't know the layout of
their new digs in Raleigh, but the techs & non techs refueled at the
same coffee machine as recently as a few months ago.

I know Red Hat is many orders of magnitude smaller than IBM.  I used to
work at IBM.  While I was there, I had made several suggestions that
turned into material changes in the product packaging/pricing even
though my job there was much more technical in nature.  The marketing
people recognized that the techies interfaced with customers on a
regular basis and were in an ideal position to suggest improvements. 
IBM didn't get so big by avoiding its own techies.  Indeed, I am quite
sure the move towards embracing Linux came from the front line techies
at IBM because the management and especially the lawyers were very much
against it just a few short years ago.

If the marketing people are not taking into consideration what their
engineers say, or tuning into the LUG mailing lists like this one, they
are missing out on some of the most qualified professional feedback that
you couldn't buy if you wanted to (have you seen the kind of stuff that
folks like the Gartner Group are hawking?).

And, as I had mentioned, any argument to the contrary is moot.  My voice
was heard by the right people.  It might not turn into a material change
in policy but it's at least going to be considered before being
discarded.

> Now I'd like *EVERYONE* to step away from the list, take a deep breath,
> and go play some nethack, until you've calmed down. OK?

<humor> Naw.  Think I'll play with Mandrake or Debian instead. </humor> 
*IF* Nalin's post is indicative of things to come from the culture
inside of RHAT, I need to do my part to let a little air out of that
tent.  I'm a bit more optimistic than that because the majority of Red
Hat people that I've talked to are much more optimistic about their jobs
and the future of their company.

<humor> And don't forget, kids, if you like what you've heard here today
you can vote for me this thursday at the SC elections.  And if you guys
were to feel REALLY masochistic, the next "Chair Hat On" post could come
from yours truly.  Would that be a refreshing change?</humor>

-- 
***********************************************************
| Rev. Chris Hedemark, DD
| Hillsborough, NC
| http://yonderway.com
***********************************************************
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