Since everyone is voicing their opinions and experiences with vendors, here are some of mine:
I work for a systems integration and support company, so in most cases, I *am* technical support for the end-user. While I can do all the work myself, it's far cheaper for me to be able to pick up the phone, call the vendor, and say "The hard disk is toast. Come replace it." If you're smart and buy the right support options, this is all it takes. It's worth it. Life is too short to spend time being a parts monkey, and I've got too much to do as it is. Any time you call a big vendor for support, your call is going into a large building staffed by several thousand trained monkeys. Some monkeys will be better then other monkeys. Thus, past experience is no guarantee of future results. I've had bad and good experiences with all the major vendors. I fully expect this to continue. The ability to state "I want this call escalated" in a stern tone of voice is useful. Dell supports Linux on their PowerEdge servers reasonable well. They don't provide support beyond making the OS work with their hardware, but they don't do that for Windoze, either. (You can buy software support if you need it.) Dell has and continues to fund a lot of development for things like kernel drivers and features that their products need; see http://linux.dell.com/ for resources. This is where the "informal" OptiPlex and Latitude support comes from, too. I work with a customer who likes Gateway. Like Dell, they have a "business" division, which is where they buy from. The hardware appears to be fairly standard commodity stuff (like a Dell). ATX cases, Intel motherboards. The business sales rep has been very helpful. Tech support varies a lot (see above). Gateway as a whole definitely still has the "consumer" mindset; the sales rep has done his best, but I really get the feeling he's fighting the company he's working for. Unfortunate. I used to prefer buying whiteboxes from smaller vendors. For one, I like to support the Local Guy and the Little Guy. For another, good whitebox vendors would often provider better support at a better price then a good major brand. Unfortunately, too many of these good vendors went under, due to price pressure from the likes of Dell. Thus, professionally, I no longer recommend whitebox systems. I don't want the warranty to evaporate in two years. One also faces the issue that many whitebox vendors are selling crap. They keep no records and have no clue; their idea of support is downloading drivers from http://www.asus.com.tw for you. That's if you're lucky; many ship whatever cheapest no-name components they can find that month. No manual, no vendor markings, no support at all. Have a nice day. Personally, I build my own computers from parts, but that's because I know what I'm doing, and it lets me "play with hardware". Even so, I don't pre-built whitebox systems; I buy major brand parts and integrate them myself. Asus, Epox, Intel, and Abit motherboards; Adaptec SCSI controllers; ATI and NVidia VGA; Intel and 3Com NICs; Plextor optical drives; it's all top-of-the-line, with support right from the manufacturer. I like fudge. -- Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do | | not represent the views or policy of any other person or organization. | | All information is provided without warranty of any kind. | _______________________________________________ gnhlug-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnhlug.org/mailman/listinfo/gnhlug-discuss
