RE: [SLE] Registering software - Any benefits?
-----Original Message----- From: Christopher Mahmood [mailto:ckm@suse.com]
Besides, they've GOT my name and my main e-mail addresses from this list and the SuSE-KDE list.
You make us sound so sinister. Basically, if you register you can use your isupport and you get occasional postcards or passes for trade shows in the mail. Yeah, I think it's junk mail too but since it's very expensive to send that sort of thing we don't do it very often.
There's not much else that gets done with the information as far as marketing goes but I can promise, having personally taken several big boxes of mail-in registration cards to a big paper shredding company here in Berkeley a couple months ago, that we don't sell the information or give it to anyone else.
Ah, but did you shred the electronic files? Hah! No, I don't think there's anything sinister about SuSE, or I wouldn't keep throwing my money at them/you with such metronome regularity <g> But I think the whole concept of "registration" the way SuSe does it is either silly or disingenuous, because the ONLY support that's offered from the company, that depends upon registration is support that nobody needs who has installed the product sufficiently to run their browser. Think about it: if you can boot, run a browser, and have managed to configure an internet connection, then you are de-facto excluded from "installation support" before you even connect to the registration page. It's not a big deal at all except that people seem to be saying "ooooo, it shows SuSE that you support/love them". Well, no. Throwing the contents of your wallet at them is the SINCEREST form of support. Ahem... /kevin (sincerely :-)
On Fri, 2003-01-24 at 22:38, KMcLauchlan@chrysalis-its.com wrote:
But I think the whole concept of "registration" the way SuSe does it is either silly or disingenuous, because the ONLY support that's offered from the company, that depends upon registration is support that nobody needs who has installed the product sufficiently to run their browser. Think about it: if you can boot, run a browser, and have managed to configure an internet connection, then you are de-facto excluded from "installation support" before you even connect to the registration page.
Assuming you connect with the computer and the OS you're trying to
install.
Which is a *huge* assumption.
--
Anders Johansson
* On Friday 24 January 2003 04:38 pm, KMcLauchlan@chrysalis-its.com wrote:
Ah, but did you shred the electronic files?
Hah!
No, I don't think there's anything sinister about SuSE, or I wouldn't keep throwing my money at them/you with such metronome regularity <g>
But I think the whole concept of "registration" the way SuSe does it is either silly or disingenuous, because the ONLY support that's offered from the company, that depends upon registration is support that nobody needs who has installed the product sufficiently to run their browser. Think about it: if you can boot, run a browser, and have managed to configure an internet connection, then you are de-facto excluded from "installation support" before you even connect to the registration page.
It's not a big deal at all except that people seem to be saying "ooooo, it shows SuSE that you support/love them". Well, no. Throwing the contents of your wallet at them is the SINCEREST form of support. Ahem...
/kevin (sincerely :-)
----------------------------- Kevin, You might feel the need to be cynical because of the problems you have had with 8.1, but honestly, SuSE has gone above and beyond for me, if I had a problem, even since I started with 7.2! I believe also that because of my registration of each of my purchased versions, it has gotten me some special "favors" along the way also. Once I found this list though and a special guru in Sweden and a couple here in the states, I haven't had the need to bother SuSE with much, but they still are helpful when I need to go to them. You might not feel the registration does anything for you but allow SuSE free reign with your personal information, but I believe there are more here than just I that feel the registration is worthwhile. Not many have trouble installing SuSE anymore as it has become relatively pain free. Most only need support for tweaking afterwards, which is why SuSE has added these lists to their manuals and sites. Also, they go to great lengths to provide a database for problem solving as well as Togan's wonderful SuSE help files! Making them all easy to access for even the casual user that puts a little effort into investigating the sources available and reading a bit. That doesn't count as support to you? Guess I just live in another dimension then. :o) Patrick --- KMail v1.4.3 --- SuSE Linux Pro v8.1 --- Registered Linux User #225206 On any other day, that might seem strange...
On Friday 24 January 2003 17:33, PL O'Smith wrote:
* On Friday 24 January 2003 04:38 pm,
You might feel the need to be cynical because of the problems you have had with 8.1, but honestly, SuSE has gone above and beyond for me, if I had a problem, even since I started with 7.2!
Well, ya know, it's sorta like giving birth (he says, going by hearsay evidence alone...). Once you see the bouncing baby actually functional, with all its fingers and toes, you forget the pain. I have had nasty problems with every version since I started, and that was before 6.0. This time, I had crashes for the first three months, until someone suggested that I load a kernel update that: a) had been around since November b) was never offered by YOU, which I ran religiously each week. But, It's now been almost a week since I loaded k_athlon-2.4.19-167, and the system hasn't even blinked. Woohoo!
I believe also that because of my registration of each of my purchased versions, it has gotten me some special "favors" along the way also. Once I found this list though and a special guru in Sweden and a couple here in the states, I haven't had the need to bother SuSE with much, but they still are helpful when I need to go to them.
I registered a copy, several versions ago, and DID ask for help. I told you what the response was. But, I also discovered this list, which has made all the difference. That was from an Alta Vista search (remember them?).
You might not feel the registration does anything for you but allow SuSE free reign with your personal information, but I believe there are more here than just I that feel the registration is worthwhile. Not many have trouble installing SuSE anymore as it has become relatively pain free. Most only need support for tweaking afterwards, which is why SuSE has added these lists to their manuals and sites. Also, they go to great lengths to provide a database for problem solving as well as Togan's wonderful SuSE help files! Making them all easy to access for even the casual user that puts a little effort into investigating the sources available and reading a bit. That doesn't count as support to you? Guess I just live in another dimension then.
Perhaps. :-) I have the books, the sdb, this list, and Togan's stuff, and none of that came from registering the software that I bought. If only SuSE could speak, I'm sure it would say it appreciated my dollars, of which there have been upwards of 1000, more than my info on a web form. <grin> Again, this is no big deal. More of a curiosity than anything else. I don't think I questioned the honor of anyone's mother. /kevin
On Saturday 25 January 2003 04:59, Kevin McLauchlan wrote:
On Friday 24 January 2003 17:33, PL O'Smith wrote:
* On Friday 24 January 2003 04:38 pm,
You might feel the need to be cynical because of the problems you have had with 8.1, but honestly, SuSE has gone above and beyond for me, if I had a problem, even since I started with 7.2!
Well, ya know, it's sorta like giving birth (he says, going by hearsay evidence alone...). Once you see the bouncing baby actually functional, with all its fingers and toes, you forget the pain.
I have had nasty problems with every version since I started, and that was before 6.0.
This time, I had crashes for the first three months, until someone suggested that I load a kernel update that:
a) had been around since November
b) was never offered by YOU, which I ran religiously each week.
But, It's now been almost a week since I loaded k_athlon-2.4.19-167, and the system hasn't even blinked. Woohoo!
what I would like to see is a default Laptop biased kernel also available on the original distribution disks
I believe also that because of my registration of each of my purchased versions, it has gotten me some special "favors" along the way also. Once I found this list though and a special guru in Sweden and a couple here in the states, I haven't had the need to bother SuSE with much, but they still are helpful when I need to go to them.
I registered a copy, several versions ago, and DID ask for help. I told you what the response was.
But, I also discovered this list, which has made all the difference. That was from an Alta Vista search (remember them?).
the links to the lists are on SuSE's website... perhaps you didn't look deep enough... it's on the support index... of all places :) -- Paul Cooke Registered Linux user 273897 Machine registration number 156819 Linux Counter: Home Page = http://counter.li.org/
On Saturday 25 January 2003 07:07, Paul Cooke wrote:
what I would like to see is a default Laptop biased kernel also available on the original distribution disks
Amen to that, brother. At the very least, I'd wish for a selectable X configuration for laptop. At the office, I run an older DELL laptop with dual-boot (NT 4 and SuSE 8.0). I switch back and forth a lot, because much of my work still needs Windows. In Windows, the system displays LCD resolution and refresh rate on the LCD, but it does up to 1600 x1200 at 70Hz (approx) on the external monitor. When I switch to Linux, I can't get it to display anything but 1024x768 at 60Hz. I'm in North America, so that is exactly the flicker-rate for the overhead fluorescent lights. (Equivalent to you Europeans and others viewing a monitor at 50Hz refresh rate. Yes, you would soon have headaches.) I've tried inputting new mode-lines, but the system ignores them. I'd pay double if SuSE would give me a working setup on my laptop. I'd probably save the price difference within a few months, in the cost of headache pills. What rots me, as much as anything else, is that at least *some* laptop users have a setup that works -- either YaST figured it out properly when they installed, or THEY figured it out when they had to modify their X setup. But ya never hear from them. [...]
But, I also discovered this list, which has made all the difference. That was from an Alta Vista search (remember them?).
the links to the lists are on SuSE's website... perhaps you didn't look deep enough... it's on the support index... of all places :)
Yeah, well, we are talking 1997 or so... things didn't look quite the same, then. :-) /kevin
* KMcLauchlan@chrysalis-its.com (KMcLauchlan@chrysalis-its.com) [030124 13:38]:
Ah, but did you shred the electronic files?
Hah!
So that there's no no way to tell who gets support?
Think about it: if you can boot, run a browser, and have managed to configure an internet connection, then you are de-facto excluded from "installation support" before you even connect to the registration page.
Uh, right. That's why we only accept support requests sent through konqueror or postfix. -- -ckm
participants (6)
-
Anders Johansson -
Christopher Mahmood -
Kevin McLauchlan -
KMcLauchlan＠chrysalis-its.com -
Paul Cooke -
PL O'Smith