Good feedback. I currently have no plans to try to lobby these kinds of companies to offer paid support. I've been thinking of trying to get FlexJS released before doing so in order to show that the Flex support business may not be on a downward slope. On the other hand, maybe hitting them up now will keep other Disney's from bailing out.
Thoughts? -Alex On 1/6/14 6:01 AM, "Nicholas Kwiatkowski" <nicho...@spoon.as> wrote: >I think 3 and 4 are the biggest ones, followed by 2. > >I used to work for a company that offered paid support for httpd.. It >wasn't and issue of actually fixing httpd -- but rather providing the >solution. Like Flex, there are a thousand ways to do things with httpd, >so >simply reconfiguring it often can get around a roadblock if you run into >one. > >The other difference is that we provide an SDK (used to build other >software), where they provide a final product. It is much easier to >support a final product with a finite number of configurations as opposed >to our SDK which has an infinite number of way it can be used/abused. > >-Nick > > >On Mon, Jan 6, 2014 at 12:03 AM, Alex Harui <aha...@adobe.com> wrote: > >> Awesome. Thanks for doing the research. >> >> I guess I'm wondering whether the reason these companies provide paid >> support is because: 1) it is mature, 2) it is popular, 3) they can >>simply >> make money doing it, 4) it is a common piece of their solutions set. >> >> One could argue the main Flex SDK has maturity, but I'm sure HTTPD has >> fewer open bugs. We do have a shot at 2, 3 and 4 if we are successful >> with FlexJS. >> >> -Alex >> >> On 1/5/14 6:55 AM, "Nicholas Kwiatkowski" <nicho...@spoon.as> wrote: >> >> >Companies like IBM, RedHat, SuSE, etc. all provide paid support for >> >projects like httpd. I believe IBM has people who are committers on the >> >project. Others like RH and SuSE have experts in httpd who are fully >> >capable of submitting patches back to the project. >> > >> >Doing a cursory search, it looks like all the major Linux distros that >> >have >> >support arms provide support. It also looks like the major IT >>outsourcing >> >groups say they support it as well (IBM Global Services, HP/EDS, >> >Accenture, >> >etc). You also have to remember that httpd is an extremely mature >>project >> >at this point with very a huge customer base and a very well tested >> >binary. >> > It's probably very safe to support as there are very few situations >>that >> >it hasn't been through. >> > >> >-Nick >> > >> > >> >On Sun, Jan 5, 2014 at 12:13 AM, Alex Harui <aha...@adobe.com> wrote: >> > >> >> >> >> >> >> On 1/4/14 4:09 PM, "Justin Mclean" <jus...@classsoftware.com> wrote: >> >> >> >> >Hi, >> >> > >> >> >> In fact, on my to do list is to try to get permission from Adobe >>to >> >>do >> >> >>that sort of thing. >> >> >Why would Adode need to give permission? Are you talking about >>yourself >> >> >only or in general, it wasn't clear to me from the context. >> >> Me personally. >> >> >> >> > >> >> >Perhaps we can make up a short list of people who are able to offer >> >> >support like that? It would need to be external right as your would >> >>want >> >> >it to be seen that Apache endorses those people in anyway. >> >> > >> >> >Also perhaps add to the Flex FAQ. eg Q: "Does Apache Flex offer any >> >>paid >> >> >support contracts?" A: "No, but several committers, PMC members and >> >> >companies are able to provide those services. <link>" >> >> Maybe. It isn't clear a big company will feel better if there is a >>list >> >> of folks because you don't really know their availability, training, >> >>etc. >> >> I've been wondering how HTTPD can be installed in so many places and >>how >> >> support works for that, but haven't had time to research it. Maybe >> >>there >> >> is an established company that would be willing to build a business >> >>around >> >> it. >> >> >> >> -Alex >> >> >> >> >> >>
