[CLUE-Talk] Open Source Support Advantages

[Grant Johnson]

<rant>
We have been required to use a particular closed source product.  The 
product has a bug in its function for sending mail.  The bug has been 
identified, and even the nature of what is wrong (not waiting for a 
response from the mail server before jamming more commands out to SMTP) 
has been figured out.  The operations staff will not call support 
because we would have to use on of our very expensive support incidents 
for the call, even though it is their bug, and they have not been good 
about fixing their bugs in the past.

Bottom line:  We pay for support, but it is an illusion, because the fix 
will not be in place in a reasonable amount of time to make this fix (it 
is a production problem).  With open source, we may not have official 
support, but at least we have an avenue of recourse if something is broken.
</rant>

Which is worse, paying for the illusion of support, with no real support 
or recourse, or having no support, knowing it on the way in,  not having 
to pay for it, but having to fix the bugs in house?

This should be an arguement for open source in the enterprise.  At least 
you have a chance of fixing it.

BTW:  Our solution is replace the mail server with one that caches the 
commands so that the flinging of commands at it still works.  This 
wonderful piece of software that actually accomodates the bug and makes 
all the world happy: Sendmail.

Yes, an open source product to fix the problem, rather than just 
allowing development in the working open source to begin with.  But at 
least this is expensive (buying new hardware and all) so that the 
bigwigs can feel like they spent their money on something......