CW: Business Looks To Linux Desktops; Some Critical Apps Lacking

[Robert Black Eagle]

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On Thursday 12 December 2002 8:25 pm, Bill Campbell wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 12, 2002 at 05:35:05AM -0800, Bob Hemus wrote:
>
> Unfortunately most certified Microsoft support folks only know (a)
> which Microsoft product to sell, and (b) how to reinstall.  They're
> totally lacking in diagnostic capabilities to find out what's wrong
> and fix the machine without reinstalling.

True story.  I was left in the lurch when my ISP did not tell me ahead 
of time they were changing hardware, software and phone numbers (DNS 
changes and all sorts of goodies).  I called up the technician and 
asked how I should configure my system.  The first guy was clueless, so 
I went to a Second Level Technician -- this is what happened.

"What system are you using?" the clueless wonder asked.
"Linux," I said.
"I'm sorry, we don't support linux," came the reply.
"Bull shit," I said, "your ISP runs with linux, I checked."
"We don't support linux," he repeated.
"Look, I don't need anything but the DNS, phone number and whatever 
other information is needed to log on and use my account -- it doesn't 
matter if it's linux or not."
"But we don't support linux," the technical parrot repeated.
"Look, are you telling me your phone number changes if I run linux, or 
use a Mac or run OS/2?  Are you telling me you just don't know what 
your DNS is?"
"I'd like to help you, but we don't support linux."

I hung up and called back later and pretended to be on a Windows system 
and wrote down the information which I then used to set up my linux 
system "which they don't support."  Mind you, when I called the company 
(Prodigy), they claimed that second level techs were computer science 
majors with at least three years of computer science.  Apparently even 
colleges turn out fools these days.

- -- 
Robert Black Eagle	
The reason for encryption is that the ordinary, normal
behavior of today could be retroactively the criminal intent tomorrow.
A terrorist becomes a "disappeared" citizen.
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