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<p>Terry Collins wrote:
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>Da Moose wrote:
<br>>
<br>> Yes your right we have looked at support and it's a difficult and
costly
<br>> area.
<br>>
<br>> Some days we spend most of the day on the phone answering suppoert
calls.
<p>Unless this is a support line, then this is bad. I closed the office
of
<br>a national association becasue of this - staff spent all time answering
<br>general problems instead of doing the work they were paid for - then
<br>they wondered why they had no jobs.</blockquote>
In my experience at the Vic office over the last years or so, the 4 biggest
support issues are
<ol>
<li>
Corrupted file system: this is covered quite well in the new documnetation
requiring only a possible quick call to get the root password. And there
has also been lots of talk about changing to riser-fs which will end the
need for this ever happening.</li>
<li>
Connection to the internet: This is mostly handled at install/setup time,
with the occational bring back to add a modem and setup their internet
scripts.</li>
<li>
Printers: Again mostly handled at setup time, and we now have a fairly
detailed list of Linux compatible printers. We also have a good howto file
that the average person can do it on their own.</li>
<li>
Games: This will always be on the cards, I personaly dont know how good
the windows emulation is in linux (only because I have never played with
it). What I normally tell ppl looking for games is go to www.everythinglinux.com.au,
they have a good range all thing for linux (games,books,distributions,
etc)</li>
</ol>
Terry the thing you seem to forget is, Computer Bank run by volunteers
so no-ones job is on the line. What I think is that we should be
looking for some more volunteers to better fill a support role, either
by recruitment or training.
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>
<br>On the day I mentioned a group that was encouraging organisations to
<br>install Linux, but they had all become millstones around their neck
<br>because it was ongoing (years of support) and this prevented them from
<br>taking on new clients.</blockquote>
It looks like the group you speak of should have done a little more homework
before speaking, if you are going to recomend something as critical as
an OS you had better also aid with some training in it's admin, and/or
look at having the support in place for recomendations made.
<blockquote TYPE=CITE>
<p>--
<br> Terry Collins {:-)}}} Ph(02) 4627 2186 Fax(02) 4628 7861
<br> email: terryc@woa.com.au www: <a href="http://www.woa.com.au">http://www.woa.com.au</a>
<br> Wombat Outdoor Adventures <Bicycles, Books, Computers,
GIS>
<p> "People without trees are like fish without clean water"
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<br><a href="http://lists.linux.org.au/listinfo/computerbank">http://lists.linux.org.au/listinfo/computerbank</a></blockquote>
Just my $2 worth
<br>John Clark
<br>Vic</html>