Oh great, here come the cheerleaders
Oh, forgive me for agreeing with someone else on this board. I'll try to be more like you. It won't happen again.
Ah, so reality doesn't meet your needs. OK, maybe you can take it back for a refund.
Ah, so you are a dyed-in-the-wool status quo man. Nothing changes and all will be well. Same non-sequitur, turned on its head. We're even.
For, tantrums aside, what I described was reality: If you're dumb enough to leave exposed services needlessly Internet-exposed and unpatched/vulnerable for six months on end, your Internet presence will be compromised, with consequent loss to your reputation, public relations, and possibly other vital interests.
As iirc Tony pointed out below, wth? Who was talking about this?
It's funny, but when people talk about businesses' need to control risks in other areas where they're not experts, nobody blinks an eye, but when you talk about risk control and abatement concerning Internet connectivity, suddenly people like you pop up trying to claim exemption from real-world concerns, on grounds that you're, well, a Special Person or something.
Nobody blinks an eye because those "other areas" are managed, as Andrew said, in what have become standard, one might say to the point of being intuitive, ways.
It happens, and people die. The Boeing Company negligently makes a defective airplane, and little girls' and boys' fathers die. The survivors sue: Six of my teenage years got eaten by one such lawsuit. Did you have a point?
Ummm..we were talking about minimizing risk. Can you not connect the dots between risk and damage?
Anyhow, I'm sorry, but the notion that businesses can't possibly deal with a fee-for-service business models is just laughable. Not only do they do this every day, both in IT and elsewhere, but I've earned a good living in the past doing exactly that. It's not necessary for businesses to hire IBM Corporation at major-customer rates or even Linuxcare at retail rates[1] to rent whatever relevant Linux expertise they feel they need: Hell, there are huge directories of people who might help (and please note that, because of how Linux works, you can pick from people on other continents, if you wish). Don't like the services of one such person? Stop paying him and pay a different one.
Social tip: if you find the opinion of your chosen adversary laughable, chance are you've misunderstood his opinion. The issue which *Andrew* brought up, before he was so rudely interrupted, is that support lifetimes are getting shorter. Go to linuxcare's website and look around. They don't want to support anything other than the current versions any more than the vendors themselves do. The issue is not fee-for-service per se but lifetime. A vendor's shortening of the support lifetime affects independents' support lifetimes.
Don't like the complexity made possible by having too many options? Well, I guess there's always SCO UNIX.
Can't argue that one. If it were part of my argument, I would reply.
My point hinged more on your unbelievable assertion that, if a business doesn't perceive the world the way you do, they should wither and die. Is a la carte a viable support model? Sure. Should the survival of my non-technology-related business *depend* upon me grokking that "fact"? You seem to think so. I've seen too many businesses make similar mistakes without actually going bankrupt that I have a hard time understanding religio-fundamentalist Capitalism like yours. Not only that, but I see other options, not only in historical precedent, but in the perception of most business owners. In my book, the momentum of business-as-usual has at least an even chance of drowning out the nouveau business model. Time will tell if those blithering idiots get what they want despite your current reality or evolutionary dogmatism.
Now, if you really think such businesses should cease operations, let's go our separate ways; I wouldn't be willing to discuss this anymore with you. If, on the other hand, you back down from your extremist hyperbole and assume a more moderate position, I'd be happy to hear your further opinion on these subjects.