[Hcoop-discuss] Server pricing

[Justin S. Leitgeb]

I generally agree that we should support cooperatives, and other 
companies with "responsible" practices (and not just bumper-sticker 
"Corporate Responsibility" labels that are rampant today).  If we can 
justify buying servers from someone like Penguin Computing, based on 
reliability estimates, support and pricing we should certainly go for 
it.  But we should base our decision on empirical data.

I have no ideological attachments to Dell, and only sent out a quote for 
their equipment because I could put one together quickly on-line.  I 
also happen to work for an Internet company that has about 300 Dell 
servers, all running Linux (mostly PowerEdge 1650's, 1850, and 2850's), 
and my experience has been that they are a fairly reliable platform 
(relatively few hardware failures) with good support.  It could be that 
they are "cheap crap" to others, though -- specifically, they may be 
lacking in areas we haven't tested.  Clinton, what are you basing your 
comment on?

I'm all up for choosing a server platform, Dell or otherwise, based on 
our knowledge of how a given company is doing, technically and 
socially.  If anyone has other quotes they'd like to put together from 
other companies and reviews of different platforms, let's put our heads 
together and weigh the evidence.

Justin


Clinton Ebadi wrote:

>On Sun, 2006-02-12 at 15:55 -0500, Justin S. Leitgeb wrote:
>
>  
>
>>According to the hardware pricing examples I sent out previously, I 
>>would imagine that machines B and C are something like the Dell 1850's I 
>>    
>>
>[snip]
>
>Slightly OT, but I don't think that we should use Dell. Why not support
>a smaller and more deserving business (e.g. Penguin Computing). Dell is
>the master of cheap crap, and is not the kind of business I think a
>cooperative should support by purchasing hardware from.
>
>  
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>_______________________________________________
>Hcoop-discuss mailing list
>Hcoop-discuss at hcoop.net
>http://hcoop.net/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/hcoop-discuss
>  
>