NetworkComputing: 'Team'Work Pays Off for Linux

"We invited all five vendors to participate in our test of Linux support services. MissionCritical Linux, however, didn't reply to multiple phone and e-mail requests. Perhaps the staff was too busy helping real customers?

"So we settled into our Green Bay, Wis., Real-World Labs and tested the services from Caldera, Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Linuxcare. In addition, we asked Linux Support Services to submit its enterprise offering but never heard back, so we looked at the company's free service, which is available only on the Web...

"We didn't just examine the shiny exteriors--we hopped in and took each service for a test-drive. Under the guise of mythical company Surreal Systems and using pseudonyms, we called support lines to evaluate both technical competence and responsiveness. We are certain the companies did not tip off their staffs, though one clever fellow claims he quickly figured out what we were up to..."

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