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Canonical adds Premium Service Engineers to support options
Canonical has added another option to their ever-increasing list of enterprise support options. Businesses requiring frequent support may pay for access to a Premium Service Engineer, an Ubuntu expert who works with the company’s existing team to keep the company’s Ubuntu installations running smoothly.
Ubuntu Premium Service Engineers, as opposed to more traditional Ubuntu support plans, gives businesses a single person to contact, who will already know how the servers and desktops are set up in advance of any help being needed. This type of support does not come at a cheap price, though. The Register reports that access to an Ubuntu PSE will cost $50,000 per year, compared to only a few hundred for some of Canonical’s support offerings.
Still, PSEs offer an extremely valuable resource of businesses: a person with specific Ubuntu training. Most IT people are trained primarily in Windows, particularly when it comes to supporting desktops. Paying for a PSE basically givces you a staff member who has Ubuntu training. The only significant difference is that PSEs will not usually be on-site, preventing them from actively managing computers.
Canonical Announces Inexpensive Phone Support
Canonical has announced consumer-oriented phone and email support for Ubuntu Desktop Edition. Ubuntu offered phone support before, however it was priced for enterprises managing large install bases. The new support plans are targeted at consumers and start at about $50 per year.
There are three tiers of this new support plan: starter, advanced, and professional. All three tiers offer support for installation and basic tasks, such as e-mail, web browsing, and OpenOffice. The advanced tier, which costs $115 per year ($65 more than starter) additionally offers support for Windows migration and a broader set of applications. Finally, the professional tier, which costs over $200 per year, adds support for topics such as virtualization and remote desktop.
These support offerings are most interesting for new Ubuntu users. The professional tier is probably unnecessary, however either starter or advanced support for a year (largely depending on how much migration suppor they need) would really get a new user going. Plus, compared to buying a copy of Windows, a year of support is still very cheap. Admittedly most people do not buy Windows alone, however you can usually save at least $50-$100 by getting a computer with Ubuntu rather than Windows.
This new support offering potentially offers a familiar bridge for new users. My only complaint is that the minimum support length is a year. many people may only need a few months of support, so a cheper and shorter option would be ideal.
Using Bash Commands to Simplify Linux Newbie Support
One of the strong points of the Ubuntu community is the forums. To many new users, the ability to get quick answers to their questions for free is an incredible resource. Unfortunately, not every user has a great experience on the forums. WorksWithU recently posted a list of tips for those giving support on the Ubuntu forums. I agree about being specific, using proper spelling, and being thorough, but there is one point I disagree with:
“Reduce as much as possible to bash commands. While new Ubuntu users may not feel comfortable working in the terminal on their own, most are perfectly willing to copy-and-paste commands, and giving them specific lines to type in is usually more efficient and easier than providing vague instructions that involve a GUI.”
While easier for the supporter, this approach leaves the user feeling like Ubuntu is mysterious and, when it breaks, only the magic of some Ubuntu geeks can fix it. The user, more than likely, doesn’t understand what he or she did, why it worked, or how to replicate it. For example, read this person’s experiences with Linux. While a bit exaggerated, the name “Super Forum Guy” pretty much sums up what I am talking about. Creating a mass of users who rely on the “Super Forum Guy” whenever they need help is not what we want, nor does it make a good name for Ubuntu. (“Yeah, it works really well, except when it doesn’t and you have to ask some geek for help.”)
What is the right way to help someone out, then? Provide step-by-step directions for navigating the graphical interface and avoid terminal commands whenever possible. Yes, this takes longer than typing up a quick command, but, in the long run, it is the best way to help a new Ubuntu user.
Canonical, the company behind Ubuntu, just announced an online course intended for “corporate and home desktop users to get started with Ubuntu.” The course is available for $100 and covers the following topics, according to the announcement:
- Understand the concepts of open source and how they tie in with Ubuntu
- Customize the look and feel of the Ubuntu desktop
- Navigate through the file system and search for files
- Connect to and use the Internet
- Perform basic word-processing and spreadsheet functions using OpenOffice.org
- Install and play games
- Add, remove and update applications
- View, draw, manipulate and scan images
- Play, edit and organize music and video files
- Seek help on Ubuntu from free and commercial sources
- Create partitions and dual-boot options
To be honest, I can’t imagine any home user wanting to take a course in using Ubuntu, but I do think that offering this to businesses is a great idea. Here is why:
For a company planning on switching to Ubuntu, their IT people, who would probably not be familiar with Linux, would want to get some training in Linux, before deploying it to all the employees. With this course, they can not only learn how to use Ubuntu, but also how to teach other people at the company how to use it, all while only paying $100.
This is an advantage Ubuntu really needs to compete in the enterprise space. Right now, many people are probably tempted to go with Red Hat or Novell’s comercial Linux offerings, because of the support that comes with it. By providing even this modest kind of support for commercial users, Canonical may be able to develop a bigger presence in that market to complement its leading position among non-commercial users.