[Sunhelp] Your letter to SunHelp

[John Kennedy]

Mr. Karczewski,
I have been a UNIX System Administrator for 2 1/2 now.  Two years of
which I have worked with Sun equipment and Solaris 2.5 and up (The first
year and this past year).  The middle six months I worked with HP
servers and HP-UX.  I have turned to the SunHelp web site and mailing
list on many occasions to answer a large range of questions from the
ridiculously simple to extremely complex.  While I have always had
access to Sun Support there are some things that cannot be answered
using Sun resources (I do not expect Sun Support to be able to answer
questions on why a particular Apache Web Server module will work on my
Linux workstation but not my SPARCserver20 Solaris 2.6 web server.  I
also prefer not to ask a ridiculously simple question over the phone to
someone whose time and resources could be better spent answering REAL
issues.).  This is where SunHelp has filled the gap.

I also have benefited from SunHelp's reviews of Sun products and the Sun
news (on his site referred to as the Rumor Mill prior to your letter). 
These gave me good insight as to why I should upgrade to the newer
release (excellent weapons in the fight to get these upgrades approved)
and the possible directions that Sun is looking to go in the future. 
While this information may be available in Sun's web site, I prefer the
independent outlook the SunHelp is allowed to express (if I were to rely
only on company web sites for product reviews than I would still be
working with Microsoft products).  I believe that most users of the site
and subscribers of the mailing list (from my understanding a large
number of these are Sun employees...) will agree with me that the value
of this site cannot be measured.

In this 2 1/2 years I have been very impressed with Sun and their
commitment to the users, maintainers and administrators that make up the
"Sun Community".  Then I read your letter to Mr. William Bradford dated
28 March 2000.  This is something that I would expect from Microsoft or
Apple, Inc.  Not a company that I thought was so in tune with their
community.  Mr. Bradford and the SunHelp site have been an extremely
valuable resource to myself and many other Sun users and
administrators.  Along with this, Mr. Bradford and his site have
actually increased the value of choosing Sun solutions by giving
potential buyers/users somewhere to turn for real world, unbiased
information needed to make an informed decision on what solution best
fits their need (I do note that Mr. Bradford has a very positive view
toward Sun products).

Being a non-profit site Mr. Bradford does not get paid for what he does
for the "Sun Community".  Letters such as yours threaten the existence
of this site and any other site that would possibly follow.  To lose
this resource, especially in this manner, would make me think twice
about Sun Microsystems and their products in the future.  I left the
Microsoft Customer Experience 2 1/2 years ago and do not wish to return,
albeit with a different company.

Sincerely,

John Kennedy
UNIX System Administrator
Orent Graphic Arts

Disclaimer - The views expressed in this communication are those of the
author only and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of Orent Graphic
Arts or its parent companies.