Why "OEM support" ain't all it is cracked up to be

[bscott at ntisys.com]

  This is a humorous story that I find also describes a key benefit of Open
Source.

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                  COMPUTERWORLD DAILY SHARK
                      August 8, 2002

Edited for content.  For original source, see the following URL:
http://www.computerworld.com/departments/opinions/sharktank
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This sysadmin discovers that his company needs to distribute updates to a
cluster of Unix servers.

"Simple enough," says admin. "I write some scripts that copy the data
out and append it to the files that need it. It all works well and it
tests out great."

But as the deadline for the rollout approaches, admin learns that the
company has spent a six-figure wad of dough on a big commercial
software package to distribute the data -- including a full-time
engineer to run it.

"My scripts are ripped out and replaced by a set of four dedicated
distribution servers running this giant package," says admin.

OK, he can live with that. After all, his scripts are being replaced
by four servers and a dedicated engineer.

But there are implementation problems, and bugs, and the deadline is
missed, and expenses on the project skyrocket. The dedicated engineer
is spending all her time on the phone with the vendor's tech support,
just trying to get things working.

Meanwhile, admin's scripts are still humming along perfectly in the
preproduction environment. Say, admin suggests to management, maybe we
should forget about giant six-figure, four-server packages and consider
implementing this simple, effective solution that actually works.

And management turns him down cold.

The reason? "If we use a home-rolled solution, we won't have tech
support," his boss tells him.

"And, as we have seen, we make heavy use of tech support for this
problem."

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