[ale] OT vision computers etal

[Geoffrey]

Christopher Fowler wrote:
> On Fri, 2006-02-24 at 07:56 -0500, Geoffrey wrote:
> 
>>You're not going to get that from Dell.
> 
> 
> If your business you can.  I've installed Linux on PE's and have had
> issues.  Dell did support Linux for those servers _but_ they suck at it.

This is my point.  Lousy service is not service.  Look folks, if there's 
one thing I've learned, small businesses need someone local to address 
these kind of issues.  If you're not a big enough fish, they'll sell to 
you, but you're really not going to get reasonable support.  Why pay 
extra for something that's not going to do you any good?

> As always I ended up having to figure it out on my own.  Our software
> requires FC2 and all Dell support I believe is RHEL 4.  Every time I
> needed help getting the PERC controller operational they kept pushing a
> RHEL 4 driver down my throat.  2.4.X driver is useless on a 2.6.X
> machine.  Past that they were pretty much useless.

Bingo.

> I've been to Dell's corporate in Austin and have worked with a
> department that is responsible for UNIX and Linux.  Dell will sell you a
> SUN box if you require it.  Whatever it takes to get the business.  This
> group was also responsible for the Linux cluster support on their server
> equipment.  The problem is that this is a specialized group at Dell.
> Could be called SpecOps.  If you were not a large 3000 node customer or
> a branch of the military then you never talked to these people.  They
> were more there for doing tests, research, setup, and finally support
> for some of the large accounts running stuff other than Windoze.  These
> guys and gals were very knowledgeable. Unfortunately a casual company
> that needs Linux and buys a few PE2850 only gets to speak to bots.
> They'll end up being on their own if they want to install anything other
> tan RHEL 4.  

Thank you, the witness may step down... I rest my case. :)

-- 
Until later, Geoffrey

War never solved anything, well, except slavery, fascism and communism