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0 pointsjjav2y ago0 comments

> Well, you can buy your own hardware and set it up with OpenStack and use it as a private cloud. Companies like Canonical or Redhat make a lot of money by providing software (mostly open source) to support exactly that use case.

Sure you can, but then who will diagnose and fix your hardware/OS interaction problems when you have parts from five vendors in the mix?

If you haven't lived through this, the answer is: nobody. Everyone points fingers at the other 4 and ignore your calls.

Back in the day you could buy a fully integrated system (from CPU to hardware to OS) from Sun or SGI or HP and you had a single company to answer all the calls, so it was much better. Today you can't really get this level of integration and support anymore.

(Actually, you probably can from IBM, which is why they're still around. But I have no experience in the IBM universe.)

This is why Oxide is so exciting to me. I hope I can be in a company that becomes a customer at some point.

0 comments

Always_Anon2y ago

>Sure you can, but then who will diagnose and fix your hardware/OS interaction problems when you have parts from five vendors in the mix?

Dell is a single vendor that will diagnose and fix all of your hardware issues.

With Oxide you're locked into what looks like a Solaris derivative OS running on the metal and you're only allowed to provision VMs which is a huge disadvantage.

I run a fleet of over 30,000 nodes in three continents and the majority is Flatcar Linux running on bare metal. Also have a decent amount of RHEL running for specific apps. We can pick and choose our bare metal OS which is something you cannot do with Oxide. That's a tough pill to swallow.

jjavOP2y ago

> Dell is a single vendor that will diagnose and fix all of your hardware issues.

I've been a Dell customer at a previous company. I know for a fact that's not true.

I had a support ticket for a weird firmware bug open for two years, they could never figure it out. I left that job but for all I know the case is still open many years later.

Dell doesn't know how to fix things like that because they don't design and engineer the systems they sell. Dell is a reseller who puts components together from a bunch of vendors and it mostly works but when it doesn't, there's nobody on staff who can fix it.

Always_Anon2y ago

I've been a Dell customer for decades at this rate and I know for a fact it's true.

I've had support tickets open for all kinda of weird firmware, hardware, etc. bugs and they've been well resolved, even if it meant Dell just replaced the part with something comparable (NIC swap).

>Dell doesn't know how to fix things like that because they don't design and engineer the systems they sell.

Of course they do. That's like saying Oxide doesn't know how to fix stuff because they don't design the CPU, NVMe, DIMMs, etc. Oxide is still going to vendors for these things.

1 more reply

wmf2y ago

Dell is a single vendor that will diagnose and fix all of your hardware issues.

And you'll be down for weeks or months while they do it.

Always_Anon2y ago

>And you'll be down for weeks or months while they do it.

Off by a few orders of magnitude. Dell on-site SLA with pre-purchased spares was about 6 hours.

With Oxide, you'd be lucky to get same day service.

3 more replies

samcat1162y ago

The vast majority of people only need to deploy VMs.

Always_Anon2y ago

It's ironic coming from a company who's CTO has harped about containers on bare metal for years. Maybe a large swath only need to deploy VMs, but the future will most definitely involve bare metal for many use cases, and oddly Oxide doesn't support that currently.

pseg1342y ago

I run a battalion of 78,000 nodes and I disagree with you.

Always_Anon2y ago

I used to run over 150,000 nodes and I agree with me.

1 more reply

jeffrallen2y ago

> you had a single company to answer all the calls, so it was much better

Huh, then why did Sun, Oracle, and Veritas have to set up a shared tech support center in San Jose?

"Accelerated finger pointing", said a friend who had to do business with them.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsjjav2y ago0 comments

Sure you can, but then who will diagnose and fix your hardware/OS interaction problems when you have parts from five vendors in the mix?

If you haven't lived through this, the answer is: nobody. Everyone points fingers at the other 4 and ignore your calls.

(Actually, you probably can from IBM, which is why they're still around. But I have no experience in the IBM universe.)

This is why Oxide is so exciting to me. I hope I can be in a company that becomes a customer at some point.

0 comments

Always_Anon2y ago

>Sure you can, but then who will diagnose and fix your hardware/OS interaction problems when you have parts from five vendors in the mix?

Dell is a single vendor that will diagnose and fix all of your hardware issues.

With Oxide you're locked into what looks like a Solaris derivative OS running on the metal and you're only allowed to provision VMs which is a huge disadvantage.

jjavOP2y ago

> Dell is a single vendor that will diagnose and fix all of your hardware issues.

I've been a Dell customer at a previous company. I know for a fact that's not true.

I had a support ticket for a weird firmware bug open for two years, they could never figure it out. I left that job but for all I know the case is still open many years later.

Always_Anon2y ago

I've been a Dell customer for decades at this rate and I know for a fact it's true.

I've had support tickets open for all kinda of weird firmware, hardware, etc. bugs and they've been well resolved, even if it meant Dell just replaced the part with something comparable (NIC swap).

>Dell doesn't know how to fix things like that because they don't design and engineer the systems they sell.

Of course they do. That's like saying Oxide doesn't know how to fix stuff because they don't design the CPU, NVMe, DIMMs, etc. Oxide is still going to vendors for these things.

1 more reply

wmf2y ago

Dell is a single vendor that will diagnose and fix all of your hardware issues.

And you'll be down for weeks or months while they do it.

Always_Anon2y ago

>And you'll be down for weeks or months while they do it.

Off by a few orders of magnitude. Dell on-site SLA with pre-purchased spares was about 6 hours.

With Oxide, you'd be lucky to get same day service.

3 more replies

samcat1162y ago

The vast majority of people only need to deploy VMs.

Always_Anon2y ago