[Sunhelp] We Won!

[dhansen at zebra.net]

> Will the manufacturers (developers?) ever learn?
> I hope someday they would.
> The raison d'etre of the mailing lists is the unsatisfactory support
> provided and the eagerness of the users o learn and explore and SHARE.


 I would have to disagree with your first point. I, for one,
have always been very satisfied with the support that I've 
received from Sun. Sun is one of the few companies where 
I've been easily available to support that went beyond the 
scope of what I was entitled to (2nd place would have to be 
HP) and I rarely have to suffer through with wrong answers 
or  being bluffed into trying guesswork. 

 Don't read this wrong...I don't agree with this lawyers
actions in any way. Especially when going after a site that
so obviously is devoted to nothing but supporting Sun, their
products, and fostering a positive community amongst their
customers and, hopefully, future customers. I am very 
glad that everything turned out in a positive light (and
glad to see a little bit of blue back on the page :). 

 I find this mailing list, the website and pretty much all of
Bill's work to be invaluable to me, and the community as a
whole, to be able to provide something that Sun cannot. In
this type of community you can find answers to more
heterogeneous questions. Situations where all of the 
products involved are not Sun hardware or Sun Software and
you couldn't expect Sun tech-support to be experts on 
every piece of software, hardware and combination thereof
but you could hope to find someone else out in the "real
world" that has run across the same situation that you are
in. As well as be able to get a reply at pretty much any
hour of the day or night. 

 And to say that a community like this hurts Sun's pockets
by turning people away from paid suport contracts is silly.
There isn't any garauntee of an answer to your questions,
let alone a speedy or correct reply. There isn't any type 
of accountability in the case of wrong answers. And besides,
anyone that is going to pay for a support contract will and
it usually will be a company wanting exactly what a free
non-profit, enthusiast-style community isn't offering.
Sun's benefits here are greater with such a community. Home
users are encouraged along a path that they will probably
end up either recommending the products to others or 
possibly working with professionally later on in their
furthering education. And professional customers get access
to a type of help that any single vendor cannot provide as 
well as being able to join others with similiar interests 
in a somewhat interactive manner.
 (I digressed alot from the original post I replied to.
  I suppose the latter part of this can be considered a 
  very late support email.)

david

p.s.- To sum up, "Yay Bill!"  :)