[mdlug] global desktop helpline

[Aaron Kulkis]

mdlug at wowway.com wrote:
> So, here's my crazy idea - is it so crazy?
> 
> I pay for a home phone I hardly use.    But I'm keeping it.   Linux adoption
> on the server side seems to be a done deal.   On the desktop, not so much.  
> 
> I envision a telephone number - mine can be forwarded - where people can call
> for free help with desktop linux.   tickets would be entered into some kind of
> website, and people from around the world could help with issues, and then the
> person would be emailed to call back, and they would be talked through their
> issue.  In the beginning it would just be desktop linux.   Maybe over time it
> could be expanded to support more things.   
> 
>  I'd be happy to help support servers too, linux based firewalls, linux based
> routers, whatever.   *BSD, all unix, and maybe the MacOS.   Maybe even OpenVMS
> and mainframe.   
> 
> It would have to start off with just linux, because that's all I know.   That
> and hp-ux.  
> 
> Anyone who was unemployed could answer the phone.   Prove yourself, and get
> offered a job maybe.   The website would also be a job board.  Recruiters
> could also call the phone # and see who was available to work and where.  
> People could post their resumes on the job board.  
> 
> Of course, if people wanted to pay for help, once the line was established,
> they could.   If people weren't satisfied, they wouldn't have to pay, or could
> get their money back.  
> 
> It might seem crazy, but I make my living doing desktop support, CAD station
> support, and CAE station support.    It pisses me off that the desktop market
> is so limited.   Where I work, it's a foreign company, and back in the
> homeland, they have nothing but 8 GB CAE linux workstations.  Perfect.   But
> here, the CAE manager snuck in a bunch of windows desktops, "because they run
> lotus notes (6.5) and M$ office."   and "because they're so much easier to
> use."   And my boss agrees with that.   I could be out of job just because of
> the things going on around here.   I mean, the slowdown.

Solution: E-mail to higher-ups!  (If you fear retaliation, go
the anonymous route, and use a public library computer).

Anyone making such stupid managerial decisions as what you just
cited by those two deserves to be ***t-canned -- especially if
in doing so, they were deliberately contradicting company policy.