Re: [chat] Re: [SLUG] Benefits of source distro (Gentoo) somewhat elusive :-)

[Stewart <stewart@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Tuesday, August 5, 2003, at 02:17  PM, Jon Biddell wrote:

> -=> Tell that to the bosses and clients.
> -=> They would much rather buy cheap slightly incompatible
> -=> linux hardware, and
> -=> me spend days on it then buy decent more expensive hardware...
>
> Scott, you're not alone there - we are using desktop (!!!) machines as
> servers because the University it too cheap to buy decent gear and
> amalgamate a number of servers into one box...

i'll second that as well. i'm just about to present a largeish bill to 
a client who's mail server died last week. they wanted to save money by 
using old hardware, but when the inevitable happened and it dies and 
none of the parts are compatible with new hardware, well, they have to 
spend a bunch more on new ( albeit cheap of course) hardware and my 
time to get it all running again.

but then maybe it's also about cashflow and making the monthly balance 
sheet look good. it seems illogical i know but they don't mind spending 
$1000 every couple of months if it saves having to outlay $6000 in the 
first place? (for eg.)

it's a tough one. particularly because in this case i was busily 
explaining to them that the old hardware ought to be fine for a while 
yet and they don't need to buy this $1500 Dell rackmount that someone's 
trying to hock them - when the old box promptly went bellyup. ya can't 
help bad timing. :-) but then there's another old PC lying around 
that's no use as a desktop anymore but just fine for a linux server. so 
why not just use it and get a bit more life out of the old dog?

perhaps this is a new thread actually, because last night i was 
chatting with another client and found it hard to explain exactly why 
it's better to spend more on 'server' hardware rather than 'desktop' - 
not being a hardware person at all and dealing with clients with 
comparatively modest needs (<50 users) i find it hard to justify the 
expense of rackmount when you can get a perfectly decent celeron 1.7 
motherboard in a case for $500 - even though i'd like to have them all 
running nice rackmounts. (The Supermicro i've got in at one site is 
doing admirably)

just my idle thoughts. back to lurking now. :)

..S.