[NCLUG] local end-user support

[Chad Perrin]

On Thu, Nov 08, 2007 at 01:55:46PM -0700, Brian Wood wrote:
> Chad Perrin wrote:
> 
> > To me, "end users" are the folks using a desktop system to access the
> > servers in the data center, or the individual workers at their desks at
> > the business office -- and not so much the sysadmins of machines in the
> > data center or "IT Resource Managers" and netadmins in business offices.
> > The word "end" in "end user" is key to my understanding of the term.
> 
> Guess I look at it this way: I (or my company) purchase a machine to
> serve web pages or handle mail. We do not sell that machine, or its
> services, to anyone else. We are responsible for the upkeep of those
> machines. Thus to me we are the "end users" of the hardware and software
> running those services.
> 
> I think you are saying that the people accessing those web pages or
> popping mail off the server are the "end users", I suppose it would
> depend on whether these folks are our employees or outsiders.

As I see it, the people accessing those web pages or email accounts on
those servers are using the servers too -- and they're the "end" of the
chain of use.  All a sysadmin is doing is making sure the thing keeps
running -- which means the sysadmin is in some respects the support
infrastructure for those "end users", rather than being an end user
himself.


> 
> I think both definitions are correct, just different.
> 
> But the original point of the thread is valid - supporting a company or
> even an individual by offering "support" to any user is much more
> difficult with Linux systems than with Windows (or OS-X for that
> matter), for a variety of reasons. This is probably why Linux has made
> much deeper inroads into the server market than the consumer one.

Even if there are limits on who they'll support, I'd still be interested
in the existence of non-MS/non-Apple third party support providers.

-- 
CCD CopyWrite Chad Perrin [ http://ccd.apotheon.org ]
MacUser, Nov. 1990: "There comes a time in the history of any project when
it becomes necessary to shoot the engineers and begin production."