On the consumer level, you are correct. Having worked in that industry (did support for Belkin wireless products, BFG Graphic cards, Scientific Atlanta cable boxes, Best data Modems/Diamond Video products, as well as enterprise level networking support for CDW, I would very much agree that consumer level support suck you know what. Most tech support people are poorly trained and are given very little information to help solve consumer issues.
Enterprise level support is different. They tend to be people who are knowledgeable in what they are supported, and fairly well trained for the job (especially since most of the support at this level is paid). While user forums and mailing lists are very helpful, sometimes that can be completely useless. Even this list, which has been awesome and many people on this list bend over backwards to help people with questions they have, I have had more than a few questions go unanswered. This list is also a lot better than most, so on other list, more often than not, I have unanswered questions or questions that the others on the list don't have a clue. That is something that won't happen with enterprise level support. The only time I have seen it take days or weeks is if there is a serious issue that involves a major bug in the code. That is why companies use paid support. Eric /*-----Original Message----- /*From: Russ [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] /*Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 12:59 PM /*To: CF-Talk /*Subject: RE: Bluedragon = open source /* /*Personally, I try to use open source software when I can, and don't use /*paid /*support ever. I find no need to use paid support when there is so much /*information available on the web. I also find that there is more and /*better /*support available for open source projects. The users and developers /*mailing lists can be invaluable, and being able to look at the source /*helps /*too sometimes. /* /*From experience of friends and family, I have noticed that paid support is /*utterly useless. They almost never come through, and things that take me /*about 10 minutes to do take weeks to get done through paid support, and /*even /*then they're not done properly. /* /*Just my $0.02. /* /*RUss /* /*> -----Original Message----- /*> From: Eric Roberts [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] /*> Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 1:50 PM /*> To: CF-Talk /*> Subject: RE: Bluedragon = open source /*> /*> I would suggest checking out MySQL and what they do with it... /*> /*> The way they do it...if you need support (and several other features not /*> available in the free version), you pay for licensing. If you don't /*need /*> this, then you can use it for free. /*> /*> Most companies want and need the support. That is where these companies /*> make their money. As a business, you want to be able to have someone /*you /*> can call and say, my server is down and I need help to get it running /*asap /*> so it doesn't effect my business. This gives you that option. /*> /*> If you feel you can handle everything yourself...then by all means use /*it /*> for free :-D /*> /*> The other benefit is that when there is an open source/free version, you /*> don't have to pay to have copies for your development, testing, and QA /*> environments. It allows you to have the same exact environment (not one /*> with limited connections or other things with their wings clipped) as /*your /*> production environment. It also becomes pretty expensive when you have /*to /*> buy licenses for 4 sets of servers if you have the above model. A 7k /*> dollar /*> product now becomes a 28k dollar product when only one of those servers /*is /*> actually producing revenue. I think that seriously encourages people to /*> use /*> a product when they can do that. I hope Adobe follows suit. /*> /*> Eric /*> /*> /*-----Original Message----- /*> /*From: Sean Corfield [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] /*> /*Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2008 12:50 AM /*> /*To: CF-Talk /*> /*Subject: Re: Bluedragon = open source /*> /* /*> /*On Tue, Mar 11, 2008 at 2:14 PM, Jordan Michaels /*<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> /*> /*wrote: /*> /*> Precisely, and I really do hope that this is the case. The only /*> caveat /*> /*> would be how NA's Dual-Licensing would work - and that's why I'm /*> really /*> /*> anxious to see the details there. /*> /* /*> /*I'm not sure what your concern is here? Lots of companies use /*> /*dual-licensing: free open source version and a fully-supported, /*> /*non-free, commercial version. That's pretty standard these days. NA /*> /*are using GPLv2 so you can go read that (it's a standard open source /*> /*license). /*> /*-- /*> /*Sean A Corfield -- (904) 302-SEAN /*> /*An Architect's View -- http://corfield.org/ /*> /* /*> /*"If you're not annoying somebody, you're not really alive." /*> /*-- Margaret Atwood /*> /* /*> /* /*> /*> /* /* ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Adobe® ColdFusion® 8 software 8 is the most important and dramatic release to date Get the Free Trial http://ad.doubleclick.net/clk;160198600;22374440;w Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/message.cfm/messageid:301088 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/CF-Talk/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=89.70.4
