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List:       openldap-general
Subject:    Re: commercial support for openldap
From:       Adam Shand <larry () spack ! org>
Date:       2000-09-24 1:55:12
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> IMO, your management needs to realize the significant differences in
> commercial software, in which commercial support is a requirement, and
> open source software, in which support from the developers is far
> better. I mean, if you go the way of Netscape Directory server for
> example, would you ever get to talk to the people who actually write
> the code? Would you ever be able to apply fixes on your own? Would you
> ever get a legitimate bug fixed within a few hours, days, or even
> weeks?

let me try a different explaination.  i'm sysadmin and have been for about
7 years.  for all that time i've been using open source software.  i'm am
not, however, a programmer.  i can hack bits of C, write perl scripts etc
but wading into the internals of sendmail/openldap/apache is not something
within my programming ability.  some software i'm very familiar with
(linux, sendmail, apache) and have no issues running, because i know what
their strong and weak points are have have enough experience to architect
my systems to take advantage of the strengths and work around the
weaknesses.  ldap is not something i've ever used before (though it's been
on the list for a long time) and is not within my comfort zone.  also i am
not familiar with the openldap project in specific and have no idea how
well it will scale, how well it handles replication, how likely it is to
corrupt a database etc.  i *may* need to have a million plus users stored
in ldap for authentication within a fairly short time and i want to make
the choice correctly the first time around.

often open source software is great because you can contact the author(s)
or resident guru's on a list or news group and get the answers you need,
but sometimes it sucks too.  i'm a good admin, normally when i can't
figure something out i've run into something weird, either a bug or just a
situation which not many people have had to deal with.  in those
situations often open source sucks because only the author(s) can help and
they are often swamped with work and other problems and have other things
higher up on the importance scale of their lives.

what i need right now is two fold.  someone to hold my hand as i get up to
speed (and to make sure i design our schema correctly etc).  and second
management has made this statement (which i'm pissed about but currently
is the "way it is").  if i choose a solution, and it fails significantly
it's my ass unless i can point the finger at someone else.  so i comes
down to the old manta "no one gets fired for buying ibm".  i don't like it
but since ldap isn't a core expertise for me i need to cover my ass, hence
commercial support.

to just make it that little bit nicer, there is pressure (of course) to
find the most cost effective solution, we're a start up and every penny
counts.  

> You might want to try a different approach :)

i'm working it. :)

thanks,
adam.

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