[NCLUG] local end-user support

[Brian Wood]

Michael Milligan wrote:
> Chad Perrin wrote:
>> I'm curious about something . . .
>>
>> MS Windows end-users have access to local, easily aquired support for
>> their systems.  Often such support is a rip-off, where some bored
>> know-nothing tech spends all day wiping hard drives and reinstalling the
>> OS and drivers from whatever CDs are brought in by the customer, but
>> sometimes it's worth something -- and regardless of whether the support
>> is any good, it's still *visible* support, so that people feel reassured
>> that they can get local support when they need it.

Just a follow-up:

Commercial support for OSS systems might seem to be more expensive than
that from commercial software vendors (or ir might not), remember:

To the commercial software vendors you are a revenue stream. You pai for
the software and will presumably keep paying for the upgrades and
perhaps future products. They want to keep you "on the hook", and will
therefore provide support at cost or perhaps even for less. "Support" is
a word that refers to their entire profit structure.

Somebody supporting an OSS product sees no revenue from the initial
product, has no hope of future revenue from upgrades or other products
and must therefore support their entire business including overhead,
taxes etc. on the revenue of the "support".

If you factor in what you pay M$ for the initial product, upgrades and
the loss of productivity by having to use sub-standard products I
suspect the OSS route might be cheaper.

There have been many "total cost of ownership" studies, the results
generally reflect who commissioned the study :-)

beww