Re: why an old operating system
On Wed, Jun 25, 2008 at 07:47:16AM -0400, Robert Huff wrote: prad writes: in our search for servers we contacted genstor (on the freebsd compatible hardware list) and a very nice fellow talked to us and sent us a quote. it was out of our price range, but i was very puzzled to see that the brand new and powerful system they were putting together was going to be operating with freebsd 5.4 why would a new system such as this be supplied with such an old os? Possibly because they haven't tested to make sure it works with anything more recent. (One might, or might not, speculate as to how many FreeBSD systems they actually sell.) Genstor sells lots of FreeBSD systems. The company I work for has bought about 150 FreeBSD servers in the last 18 months from Genstor. Josef -- Josef Grosch | Another day closer to a | FreeBSD 6.3 [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Micro$oft free world | Berkeley, Ca. pgpjK5GJJ3rG8.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: why an old operating system
On Tue, Jun 24, 2008 at 10:59:58PM -0700, prad wrote: in our search for servers we contacted genstor (on the freebsd compatible hardware list) and a very nice fellow talked to us and sent us a quote. it was out of our price range, but i was very puzzled to see that the brand new and powerful system they were putting together was going to be operating with freebsd 5.4 why would a new system such as this be supplied with such an old os? -- In friendship, prad I'm not sure who you talked to but I deal with Genstor on a weekly basis. The company I work for has a long history of buying from Genstor and we have found that they are very proficient with FreeBSD. They will set up a machines for you with almost any version of FreeBSD you want. Almost as in anything older that 4.8 will be a real pain to get working on modern hardware. Their base install of FreeBSD is 6.3. Another vendor you should look at is iX systems (http://www.ixsystems.com/). They also do a great job with FreeBSD systems. Josef -- Josef Grosch | Another day closer to a | FreeBSD 6.3 [EMAIL PROTECTED] | Micro$oft free world | Berkeley, Ca. pgpcAFM1ZpPMA.pgp Description: PGP signature
RE: why an old operating system
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of prad Sent: Tuesday, June 24, 2008 11:00 PM To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: why an old operating system in our search for servers we contacted genstor (on the freebsd compatible hardware list) and a very nice fellow talked to us and sent us a quote. it was out of our price range, but i was very puzzled to see that the brand new and powerful system they were putting together was going to be operating with freebsd 5.4 why would a new system such as this be supplied with such an old os? The simple reason is support. They know that most purchasers will be wiping off the FreeBSD 5.4 install and loading FreeBSD 6.3 on their new server hardware as soon as they get it. Thus if a customer calls up complaining that they have discovered some hardware bug or problem, they can simply say that it must be the newer version of FreeBSD has a bug in it. To get support the customer is then stuck in the position where he has to nuke and repave his server with the old version of FreeBSD then try to recreate the problem just to get support (which is a lot of work) or bitch to the FreeBSD mailing list. Since it is far easier to bitch to the FreeBSD mailing list, you can guess what most customers do. If they run into a really persistent customer who does go to the trouble of backreving the server to 5.4 then they can claim that they only support the 5.4 installs that -they- do, and the server has to be shipped back so they can put it back to how it was when they preloaded it. And of course there will be a charge for this. In short, unless the customer is -extremely- knowledgeable about the process of purchasing a commercial build-to-order server, genstor is going to have a number of bullet-proof get-out-of-jail-free cards that they can play to make it easy to deflect FreeBSD support calls. And an extremely knowledgeable customer won't be buying from them, they will be building their own box, and if they do buy from them, genstor won't hear anything from the customer in the way of support calls because the customer will support himself. FreeBSD servers undoubtedly make up a small fraction of their business, my guess is they mainly sell Linux boxes. They will take the FreeBSD business when they can get it, but on their terms, not on your terms. And their terms obviously are to make it difficult to get support from them. As Bill Moran said, it's a lot of work to do compatability assurance. This is why genstor is getting the big bucks here, your paying them for a custom-built server and part of what you are paying them for is for them to have done the compatability assurance on the CURRENT version of FreeBSD. If they AREN'T going to do it, then they add absolutely no more value than if you just bought the parts and built it yourself - my guess is they are hoping most of their customers haven't figured that out. Ted ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
why an old operating system
in our search for servers we contacted genstor (on the freebsd compatible hardware list) and a very nice fellow talked to us and sent us a quote. it was out of our price range, but i was very puzzled to see that the brand new and powerful system they were putting together was going to be operating with freebsd 5.4 why would a new system such as this be supplied with such an old os? -- In friendship, prad ... with you on your journey Towards Freedom http://www.towardsfreedom.com (website) Information, Inspiration, Imagination - truly a site for soaring I's ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: why an old operating system
In response to prad [EMAIL PROTECTED]: in our search for servers we contacted genstor (on the freebsd compatible hardware list) and a very nice fellow talked to us and sent us a quote. it was out of our price range, but i was very puzzled to see that the brand new and powerful system they were putting together was going to be operating with freebsd 5.4 why would a new system such as this be supplied with such an old os? It's possible that they have not yet vetted their hardware against the new OS. i.e. it's a quality control thing. At work, we get our hardware from Dell, which doesn't support FreeBSD so we have to do our compatibility assurance in-house. It's a lot of work. We're in the process of moving systems from 6.2 to 6.3 at this time, but we only just got the oldest of our servers off the 5.X branch a month ago. I don't expect we'll be moving to 7.X until early 2009, based on how long it takes us to assure it works in all the ways we need it to (although a few non-critical systems, like my workstation, are already running 7.X) Can't speak for the vendor you mention, but that would be my guess. -- Bill Moran http://www.potentialtech.com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
why an old operating system
prad writes: in our search for servers we contacted genstor (on the freebsd compatible hardware list) and a very nice fellow talked to us and sent us a quote. it was out of our price range, but i was very puzzled to see that the brand new and powerful system they were putting together was going to be operating with freebsd 5.4 why would a new system such as this be supplied with such an old os? Possibly because they haven't tested to make sure it works with anything more recent. (One might, or might not, speculate as to how many FreeBSD systems they actually sell.) Robert Huff ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: why an old operating system
At 12:59 AM 6/25/2008, prad wrote: in our search for servers we contacted genstor (on the freebsd compatible hardware list) and a very nice fellow talked to us and sent us a quote. it was out of our price range, but i was very puzzled to see that the brand new and powerful system they were putting together was going to be operating with freebsd 5.4 why would a new system such as this be supplied with such an old os? -- In friendship, prad Prad, You'd need to ask them why they are using such an old version. The good news is that FreeBSD will run on almost any x86 motherboard, you need to check compatibility for things like RAID cards and other specialized peripherals. -Derek -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Re: why an old operating system
Derek Ragona wrote: At 12:59 AM 6/25/2008, prad wrote: in our search for servers we contacted genstor (on the freebsd compatible hardware list) and a very nice fellow talked to us and sent us a quote. it was out of our price range, but i was very puzzled to see that the brand new and powerful system they were putting together was going to be operating with freebsd 5.4 why would a new system such as this be supplied with such an old os? -- In friendship, prad Prad, You'd need to ask them why they are using such an old version. The good news is that FreeBSD will run on almost any x86 motherboard, you need to check compatibility for things like RAID cards and other specialized peripherals. You could consider switching hosts. My host is running 6.3 and is very stable, fast and (IMO) affordable. If you're interested in their contact info, let me know. -- Ryan ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
