Re: What then must we do?

["Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>]

On Thu, 2004-02-05 at 08:50, Sean \The RIMBoy\ wrote:
> Where do you suggest then?  If not Dell, then who?  The former compaq was 
> always worse than Dell when it came doing proprietary things.  HP looks to 
> be falling into the same trap, nevermind never seeing / hearing about any 
> sort of impressive HP hardware (at least that which is x86).  I could 
> almost buy supermicro (and have in the past) but in the end they don't 
> offer the support Dell can offer if needed (at least in my environment).  
> IBM maybe, but they're not the first that comes to mind for department 
> server purchases, nevermind the desktop.
> So where *should* I be putting my money if not Dell?

There are several 2nd tier OEMs.  Don't be afraid to go 2nd tier when
you need Linux.  If enough people did that, then:
  A)  You save your company time (which is money)
  B)  You can now play off their price/services against your 1st tier
  C)  Eventually a 1st tier will realize it's worth it

You should _never_ tie your company to a _sole_ PC OEM.  You should
have at least two.  That way, you can play each one of each other.

I did this very well with Dell and Micron (although we were eventually
forced to drop Dell at one company as they simply do not care about
sub-400 employee companies).

As far as "C", Microsoft can fend off tier-1 OEMs that adopt Linux one
at a time, but once it becomes the whole industry, that will change
everything.



-- 
Bryan J. Smith, E.I. -- Engineer, Technologist, School Teacher
b.j.smith@ieee.org



-
To unsubscribe, send email to majordomo@silug.org with
"unsubscribe silug-discuss" in the body.