Linux-specific technical problems

[J. Landman Gay]

Bob Warren wrote:

> The person 
> at the gateway of Rev technical support nowadays seems to be Jacque more 
> or less exclusively, so I suppose the suggestion I am about to make is 
> addressed to her.

Pretty much true for technical questions. Heather fields everything 
else, but if it involves scripting or engine behavior, the question gets 
placed into my queue. I work a couple of hours every morning (my local 
US time) and clear my queue daily. For non-US residents, that's often 
late afternoon or sometimes evening.

> (But I am making it publicly so that other Linux users 
> can benefit from the answer.) Jacque does a splendid job, but naturally 
> her experience with Linux is less than it is with Macintosh and Windows. 
> As I learned from my last contact with Rev technical support, she 
> doesn't even have access to a Linux machine, so for example, instead of 
> verifying a reported Linux bug in a couple of seconds, she needs to 
> exchange a number of e-mails with the Linux user in order to adequately 
> understand the problem.

Again, true. I have to ask someone on the team to verify and answer. 
There are a couple of people there who can do that, but they are not 
directly involved in tech support (nor should they be.) So you are 
right, I need to find someone to ask. On the other hand, I'm developing 
a list of common questions that I can now answer with boilerplate -- but 
if it isn't something pretty basic, I need to forward the question to a 
team member (and your stuff isn't basic. ;)) Due to the differences in 
time zones, they usually don't even see my request until the next day so 
there is an unavoidable lag which doesn't help either.

> My question is, can something be done about this? Jacque: If you see 
> that a simple Linux-specific question doesn't get answered on-List, is 
> there a way that some kind of answer can be extracted from the Rev 
> engineers?

Well, technically it would have to come through the support queue if you 
want to make sure I see it. I don't always read questions about things 
I'm not familiar with, I just assume someone else will answer. I do 
usually catch my own name though, so if you specifically ask me on the 
list I'll try to find out. I can't guarantee an immediate response, 
since it will depend on the availability of the people I need to ask, 
what time of day I see your question, and whether anyone on the team is 
around. But I'll forward to them when I see it.

One note of hope is that the whole unix engine is being rewritten and it 
is likely that much of what's broken now will be fixed soon. Or at 
least, that's the idea.

I am sympathetic to your position, if that helps. And I do intend to 
install some version of 'nix and get going with it when I get a chance. 
That can only help my own business, as well as the level of support I 
can provide to RR customers. I found Peter's recent list of distros very 
helpful in making a decision.

-- 
Jacqueline Landman Gay         |     jacque at hyperactivesw.com
HyperActive Software           |     http://www.hyperactivesw.com