[CLUE-Talk] [Fwd: The Challenge...]

[Kevin Cullis]

Lynn Danielson wrote:
> 
> Kevin Cullis wrote:
> > the ... setup will have to be "professional".
> <snip>
> > ... his comment was that he gave me more than
> > what he got from most of his customers in the IT world.
> 
> If you're trying to give him an estimate and that's the
> response you get from him when asking for information, then
> I'd give him the same in return.  Make best case assumptions
> and tell him that labor costs may vary under different
> circumstances.

I'm not trying to give him an estimate yet, but trying to determine how
REAL his intent is with this project, i.e. show me the money issue. 
Having been in a number of positions before which required giving
information I'm hesitant to give much more since there's no true intent
other than a casual interest.

> 
> > He's [cheap] about money so I told him to get the most recent
> > version, about $80, is all that it would cost.  He then said
> > he could spring the money, but "not much" for a pilot project.
> 
> Eighty dollars really isn't that much to spend on a pilot project
> for a commercial venture.  A year subscription to KRUD costs less.
> A pilot project with NT would cost a whole lot more.  At least if
> he's being legal about it.

Good point, I'll tell him.

> 
> You might want to tell him about Microsoft's affiliation with the
> BSA and the menacing letters they've mailed out this year.  The
> NCLUG has good documentation about this on their Operation White
> Flag page <http://nclug.org/owf/>.  If he just wants Linux up and
> running and doesn't want to pay for a recent commercial
> distribution, offer to install a more current copy for him, I'm
> sure we can come up with something from the LUG if you don't have
> one, we may even let him keep it.  In either case, the software on
> his machine will be free and legal.

This will be of much import to him, but not for the Dept. of Justice
issues ;-)

> 
> Contact Techangle and tummy.com to see what their hourly rates and
> minimum daily charges are.  I think he'll be hard pressed to find
> someone better who charges less.  If he balks at that, then encourage
> him to do it on his own and work through any difficulties on line
> with the rest of us.

I will, thanks

> 
> If he wants someone else to do the work for him, it's going to cost
> him some money.  But it will likely cost less then a 10 user version
> of NT Server (which, last I was aware, costs in excess of a thousand
> bucks).  Add to that the cost of a database, say SQL Server, and the
> cost of an intranet server, say IIS, and your probably looking at
> close to $4K.

Oh, I've already point this out.

> 
> He could run freeware alternatives to IIS and SQL Server on NT.  But
> if he's challenging you to use Linux and open source software to
> replace Microsoft's products, I think it's only fair that he consider
> the full cost of using their software.  And if wants them to be
> professionally installed and configured, he's still going end up
> paying the labor costs on top of that.

Indeed!!!

> 
> > The intranet sounds like the most critical since they want indexing
> > of the files for future reference and backups.
> 
> What files are you talking about here?  I thought he wanted indexing
> of his database table.  If he wants a bunch of documents indexed and
> searchable as part of his intranet, there are a number of freeware
> packages, htdig comes to mind.  But without more info I don't know
> how you could estimate a professional solution.  If he's not willing
> to give you more information about what he wants, I'd say a sample
> html page running on Apache constitutes an intranet.

Again, I haven't got the info from him yet.

> 
> Back ups could probably be done with tar, but I'm not sure that's
> the best solution, nor am I familiar with much else.

Yes, good point.

Kevin