[Linux] FreeGeek or ByteWorks in South FL?

[Tim Krabec]

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Paid support is not necessarily out, Payment may not be cash, it could 
be a host of things, such as helping during a fix the PC day, or 
translating services for helping others in the same boat.

-- Tim

Adam Glass wrote:
> On 3/16/07, Robert Citek <robert.citek@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Which brings us
>> to the challenge: is there a sensible way for a small group of people
>> (<10) to support a hundred Linux newbies?
>>
>> Just throwing out some models:
>>
>> - paid support (e.g. Red Hat)
>> - community support (e.g. LUG mailing list)
>> - combination of community and paid support (e.g. Linspire)
>>
>> Given the target audience, those that could not afford a computer, are
>> these models even appropriate?  That is, would we need to come up with
>> more creative models?
> 
> I think paid support is right out.  A family unable to afford a
> computer certainly will have higher priorities for funds than tech
> support.  They'd end up shoving the PC into a corner and going to the
> library to use a Windows machine.
> 
> Community support returns to the same long-term volunteer issues
> mentioned before.  It takes a certain skill set to do e-mail support
> for newbies, and it is time consuming.  Again the result is most of
> the work falling onto a small group of people, which is not
> sustainable in the long run.
> 
> Even then, there will still be plenty of occasions when the problem
> just can't be solved via e-mail.  Oh yeah, and what happens when the
> newbie's only way to access email support is via the Linux box that
> won't connect to the internet?  There still has to be a phone number
> to call.
> 
> Once again, I think this is the kind of thing that requires a very
> large pool of skilled folks willing to put in a long term commitment.
> Places like Silicon Valley and other areas with large tech employers
> might be able to do it... IBM, Intel, etc.  It would be nice to have
> that ability here too, but we just don't.
> 
> --Adam
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