[plug] Training for Linux?

[Michael Hunt]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-plug at linux.org.au [mailto:owner-plug at linux.org.au]On Behalf
> Of David Campbell
> Sent: Wednesday, January 27, 1999 7:17 AM
> To: plug at linux.org.au
> Subject: Re: [plug] Training for Linux?
>

*snip*

> > Although most of us would like to see Windows crash and burn I
> would say we
> > have to help people in that area who look at things through Microsoft's
> > product eyes.
>
> I was trying to be unbiased and look from the point of view of
> someone going to
> their office manager and asking to install a web server (manager
> knows very
> little about computers).
>
> If I said there are two options, NT and Linux. Both require the
> same amount of
> training (say 5 days @$200/day) but the Linux option will be
> $1000 cheaper,
> everyone could guess the result. HOWEVER if I was to say NT would
> require 5
> days training (@$200/day) but the Linux option would be $2000 cheaper (no
> training) but I would be reading a book, the NT option "looks
> safer" (butt
> covering exercise).
>
> Thanks for the comment.
>
I think it is typical of human nature to derive something that is cheap or
free as being of an inferior quality to something which we have to pay for.
People always think there is a catch, hence the saying there is not such
thing as a free lunch. My experience with tech support is that people can
abuse a free support program (ring about subjects totally unrelated to what
you are providing an whinge likely nothing else about the quality of the
support) but when they have to pay for it they are on the whole a lot more
courteous. While the book method as a training tool might be cheaper in the
managers eyes it comes across as being a non-professional product (after all
don't the big name software companies have training programs). The training
program may not be as beneficial as reading a book (given some of the boring
instructors that I have had to listen to), but in the managers eyes he is
spending his budget on something which he has to supply anyhow, and as he is
going to need to justify it to his superiors next year (so as to retain his
budget) he is most likely going to perform the butt covering exercise.
The sales angle is as follows: Linux is going to give them value for money.
A well done Linux course is going to teach them how to use this value for
money operating system. And this money is going to feed the Linux
developers, integrators, instructors etc make Linux a better value for money
OS.