[NTLUG:Discuss] OT: RedHat support [was Redhat Offerings -- the Red Hat bashing tour isback!]

[Cameron, Thomas]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: discuss-bounces at ntlug.org [mailto:discuss-bounces at ntlug.org]On
> Behalf Of Lance Simmons
> Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 3:43 PM
> To: NTLUG Discussion List
> Subject: [NTLUG:Discuss] OT: RedHat support [was Redhat 
> Offerings -- the
> Red Hat bashing tour isback!]
> 
> 
> * Chris Cox <cjcox at acm.org> [040511 14:53]:
> > 
> > Red Hat had a paid support model before, and they have one now.  The
> > price may be a bit higher now, but that's the price of support.
> 
> How is RedHat support?  When I bought RedHat 5.1, I 
> apparently paid for
> 30 days' support, but for whatever reason I never needed to 
> use it.  Is
> there someone on the other end of the phone to talk you through
> problems, or what?

According to much of what I've heard, support was not too great for non-enterprise users.  I never had the occasion to call either, so I don't know for sure.

> I've gotten used to the debian-user mailing list and debian irc
> channels, both of which I think are impressive sources of 
> support.  But
> one of the main appeals of RedHat to the corporate world, so one keeps
> hearing, is support.  Just what kind of support are we talking about?

We (Bank of America) have a pretty impressive support mechanism with Red Hat - we have a nice web-based issue tracker that apparently raises all kinds of alarms if we enter a severity 1 issue and a technical account manager who is awesome at getting us answers.  I don't pretend that we're typical - we're not.  We've spent a pretty penny to get that support.  

Having said that, anyone who buys even a single copy of RHEL gets some level of support for some period of time.  Look at https://www.redhat.com/support/service/sla/rhel3.html for their service level agreements.

Regards,
--
Thomas Cameron, RHCE, CNE, MCSE, MCT
Assistant Vice President
Linux Design and Engineering
Bank of America
(972) 997-9641

The opinions expressed in this message are mine alone and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of my employer, Bank of America.