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

[Lee]

On Friday 13 December 2002 09:32, Robert Black Eagle wrote:
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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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>>It's differnt other places. My ISP, gtcom.net,in Apalachicola, Fl. isn't 
much. They just lease space on a server in Atlanta, Ga. When I set up my 
first Linux system I was delighted to find that the main company in Atlanta 
had two techs on staff who only handled Linux. They not only gave me the info 
I needed to set up one box with the regular kppp setup, but talked me through 
setting up a box using scripting.

Lee