How Dell Linux mailing lists work.

[Jeremy_Sheard@Dell.com]

From: Michael E Brown
> The next set of people on this list are some of the Server Support folks.
> These are generally the techs you might talk to on the phone if you call
> in and ask for support. These folks get paid to answer phones, mostly. I
> don't know their status in regards to quotas for answering support emails.
> Perhaps one of the server support folks could explain that one?


The primary job function we do is verify that the Hardware is working and
functioning on our PowerEdge Servers.  There are several of us here on the
Linux Team in Server Support that are on the Linux mailing lists for at
least a couple of reasons.  A couple of these reasons are to keep up with
what is going on in the Linux Community and 2) learn more about the
Operating System.  I will be going for my RHCE next month.



Jeremy Sheard
L2 Server Support
RedHat Linux / Escalations
DELL Computer Corporation


-----Original Message-----
From: Michael E Brown [mailto:michael_e_brown at dell.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2001 10:40 AM
To: 'Linux-PowerEdge at dell.com'
Subject: How Dell Linux mailing lists work.



On Thu, 6 Sep 2001, Matt Smith wrote:

> P.S.  Not sure exactly how this list works - actually, I didn't realize it
> was even a list, at first. (DUH)  Should we stop copying individuals on
this
> thread and just send to the list?

Since these lists are by subscription only, you can safely drop people
from the CC list. The archives are publicly available at
http://lists.us.dell.com.

There is not an official policy regarding the lists, as yet. But I can
explain a few details about the purpose of the lists. First let me start
by explaining who is on the list.

Most of the Linux OS Development team at Dell is on the lists. I am in
Linux OS Development. What we do is the engineering, testing and
certification of new Red Hat Linux releases on Dell hardware. This is our
primary function. Most of us get to be very familiar with the intricacies
of the hardware and software during our testing and development. So, we
are on this list for two reasons, 1) because we are generally linux
experts who can help with problems and 2) to gauge customer demand so that
we can provide feedback within Dell on what customers are asking for.
(Yes, we do hear the folks asking about OpenManage :-)

The next set of people on this list are some of the Server Support folks.
These are generally the techs you might talk to on the phone if you call
in and ask for support. These folks get paid to answer phones, mostly. I
don't know their status in regards to quotas for answering support emails.
Perhaps one of the server support folks could explain that one?

The other people on the list are customers (you).

The bottom line is that most of the Dell people who are on the Linux
mailing lists are not people who are getting paid to act as email support
as their primary job function. Thus, you may get an answer like: "Please
call Dell tech support", if you ask a particularly hard question. Please
realize that sometimes we don't have time to reproduce different problems
and have to refer you to "the professionals", as support may not be our
primary job.

Thus, we are very interested in getting customers who can help each other
on the list. A couple of great examples have emerged already. Debian
install disks have been made and posted to www.domsch.com/linux by Dell
customers. We also have a few people who actively answer email who are not
Dell employees and are a great help.

So, hopefully this explains a bit of how this list works. If some of the
other Dell people (Matt?) have anything to add, that would be great. Or if
some of the Non-Dell folks have some input, that would be fine, too :-)

--
Michael Brown
Linux OS Development
Dell Computer Corp

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