Re: gagging - Re: freelance sysadmining - other thread went bonkers
On Sat, 15 Nov 2003 15:06:50 -0800 (PST),
Alvin Oga <aoga@ns.Linux-Consulting.com> wrote in message
<[🔎] Pine.LNX.3.96.1031115145032.31435A-100000@Maggie.Linux-Consulting.com>:
>
> On Fri, 14 Nov 2003, Vikki Roemer wrote:
..booo, Alvin. "..and I???" ;-)
> > > ..sure, but Vikki also plans to sell customized boxes.
> > > On these, I would sell Sarge.
> > > And charge extra for anything else.
> ...
> > If the customer *insisted* on (*gag*) RH or Mandrake or something, I
> > would definitely charge extra.
>
> be prepared to be be gagging lot more than you think ..
>
> and be sure that the "extra charge" is more than enough to make
> you take the deal vs moving onto ohter prospects
>
> charging "extra" is good ... even better if one can collect on it
>
> "80% - 90%" of the extra charge will be for some flavor of windoze
>
> if people are buying 20-30 systems at a time with Win2K installs
> at $200each (and upwards) ... than we just *gag* and build it for um
> ..
> - dual boot- windoze + linux + some minor tweeks
..bad ram-down-the-troat trap: How do you prove "it was Microsofts and
not your fault?" Stay away from dual boots, send them down the street.
> otherwise, we usually tell them we dont support windoze under
> their budget for "support" they are expecting, and tom-dick-n-harry
> pc shop down the street will install windoze for FREE, so why pay us??
>
> - we tell them we do linux customizations in hw and sw and mw ....
>
> - everybody wants custom this and custom that ( which is different
> than the default distro ) and expects it to be done for free.. :-)
> - and nobody wants to pay for patches ... oh well ...
> ( do you do it for free or bill um )
>
> - and its always on different hardware ..
>
> - as long as a budget and check is in hand ... they've probably
> got a deal, and if the budget they have is in a different
> ball park, tom-dick-n-harry down the street works out good
> ( or dell, compaq, gateway, etc, )
>
> c ya
> alvin
>
> - just our mix of "who comes knocking"
> - and unless we reply within 1-2 hrs .. the deal is gone by the
> time we reply after that ( consistently replying for each email
> from them ) -- not easy to do
>
> - about 95% of them w/ checks in hand are looking for rh support
> and customizations, 5% was for slackware, 1% (usually geeky admins)
> was looking for debian, and suse is getting up the tree in the last
> few months
> - keep in mind their managers are the suits and guess what
> distro those with budgetary ccntrol wants ..
>
> - if you're concentrating on debian ... for a living ... you'd need a
> good long savings and/or a good debian-based customer base
..as the penguin pioneer around, her only competition is Microsoft,
and building that base is workable. ;-)
--
..med vennlig hilsen = with Kind Regards from Arnt... ;-)
...with a number of polar bear hunters in his ancestry...
Scenarios always come in sets of three:
best case, worst case, and just in case.
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