Verily I say unto thee, that Roy Schestowitz spake thusly:
> Microsoft Tells You To Call Dell For Windows Customer Service, Hangs Up
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
> | Every time reader Jered updates his Windows Media Center PC bad
> | things happen. Codecs are deleted. The DVD player menu doesn't
> | work. Finally, the sound stopped working completely. Since it
> | was the Windows Update that seemed to be causing the problems,
> | Jered called Microsoft. They tried to pawn him off on Dell, then
> | reluctantly agreed to call him back in 24 hours before hanging
> | up on him.
> `----
>
> http://consumerist.com/consumer/microsoft/microsoft-tells-you-to-call-dell-for-windows-customer-service-hangs-up-249641.php
I'm trying very hard to remember *any* positive experience I've ever had
with support for a proprietary software product. Can't think of one
off-hand. I can remember more than a few support nightmares though.
The ironic thing is that one of the arguments used against FOSS is the
supposed lack of *official* support, with a general criticism that
peer-support is inherently less useful than an official channel. My
experiences suggests quite the opposite.
Of course for Enterprise Linux customers, and those who buy "commercial"
Desktop Linux solutions, there are official channels, but unlike
proprietary software, peer support is a very real and viable
alternative. I've yet to discover any FOSS support issue which cannot be
positively identified by peer support, and invariably resolved in a
similar fashion. OTOH in my Windows days, I seem to recall going round
in circles with support issues that seemingly had no resolution ... or
even an inkling of one.
Open Source really facilitates this. That's the *true* "Genuine Advantage".
--
K.
http://slated.org
.----
| "Future archaeologists will be able to identify a 'Vista Upgrade
| Layer' when they go through our landfill sites" - Sian Berry, the
| Green Party.
`----
Fedora Core release 5 (Bordeaux) on sky, running kernel 2.6.20-1.2307.fc5
03:01:42 up 5:57, 2 users, load average: 0.04, 0.01, 0.04
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