Re: Offering more expensive SuSE versions with application support etc.
I suppose Suse has studied this, though you can never be
sure. Offering supplemental support is good in theory, but I wonder
who, besides businesses, will really pay for this. It's going to be
more than a $10 difference, let me tell you. Check out current pricing
at
http://support.suse.de/en/services/index.html
Also there is a point after which, if you paint on your boxes
"Includes Full Support!" you start to make other customers feel they
are getting something less than they deserve (e.g. Red Hat standard),
and this is counterproductive. Those who really want to pay for
support, meaning companies, contact SuSE directly in any case.
As it is, if you look at the prices of the different distributions,
you can see that differences in price are already accounted for by
differences in product quality. SuSE still comes out the best bargain
on any measure.
Suse Pro 7.0, $63 at Amazon.com. Has several great manuals and more
applications than any other distribution. Plus the DVD, which is
redundant. Plus limited installation support (which I never used).
Red Hat Linux 6.2 Deluxe, $64 Amazon.com. Includes crappy manuals,
few applications. Very disappointing. Slightly better optimized than
SuSE, out of the box, for my machine. Limited installation support
(which I used when first installing linux, it was excellent).
Red Hat Linux 6.2 Professional $140 at Amazon. I have no idea what it
includes, but can it be more than SuSE?
Slackware 7.1 +Essentials Manual $49.95 at bsdi, no support as far as
I can see.
FreeBSD PowerPack 4.2 $99.95 at bsdi. Tons of software, sources, a
brilliant operating system (inlcuding package management), online
documentation, and an aging manual. No support, as far as I can
see. Support is extra -- starting at $500 a year for email support
only, next-day service guaranteed, covering topics you can see in
"Level 1" at
http://www.BSDI.COM/services/support/freebsd-programs/index.php#services
Complete FreeBSD with CDs, 3rd Ed, FreeBSD 4.1 ($69.95). As above,
minus "FreeBSD Tollkit", which includes the revision history of
FreeBSD, the FreeBSD.org website, and more. No support, as far as I
can see. Support extra, at the above rates.
I would imagine that providing support is very expensive. I don't
think that much of the purchase cost of SuSE is actually budgeted for
support. That's why the long manuals. One or two long support calls
could wipe out the profit on that particular product. Suse takes the
approach of documenting their product better than any of the other
distributions, providing a good support database that is easily
searched, and providing fora such as this mailing list, which is
actually an efficient vector of support for almost all concerned. I
have already benefitted from it -- thanks Ben and others for your
altruism!
Corvin
--
Corvin Russell