On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 09:12:08AM +0000, Christoph Lukas wrote: > Am Donnerstag, den 26.02.2009, 19:58 +0100 schrieb Herbert Poetzl: > > On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 05:57:54PM +0000, Ed W wrote: > > > Herbert Poetzl wrote: > > > > One proposal I have (which was actually tested over > > > > the years, and seems to work - at least for me) would > > > > be that Companies using Linux-VServer get some kind > > > > of 'Service Contract' with a Developer (which is a > > > > good thing anyway), ranging between a single hour > > > > per month up to a day per week, for, let's say 100 > > > > EUR per hour, which can be consumed or not, where in > > > > the latter case, this time will be spent on general > > > > Linux-VServer development and testing. (if you like > > > > that idea, please contact me and I'm certain we can > > > > arrange something) > > > I'm a (very small) business using vservers and I am extremely > > > keen to see this project survive because I really don't want to have > > > to switch to a different project since I do rather like vserver!! I > > > think there are several other businesses using vserver here also who > > > have raised their heads in the past (obviously many use the project, > > > but don't read the mailing list!) > > > I will happily buy a Service Contract. However, I think you need > > > to do a little more work as to how this is all going to work. > > sure, that was just a rough idea where I know that > > it works, and it always is a win/win ... > > > In the past I have tried to get a few other people to bulk buy work > > > and the issue I think is that businesses (and individuals) really > > > have to define exactly what they are getting when they spend some > > > money (at least anything over pocket money prices). > > exactly and this complicated the whole efford to > > such degree that I would need a department to > > define, organize and finalize such effords > For me it would be sufficient to get an invoice including vat for > every payment. that is the idea beind a service contract, although I personally prefer to let the customer handle the vat (as it is quite different between countries and involves a lot of work when I have to handle it) > It would be great to have a wiki page that defines some conditions for > this kind of support: what you can expect for your financial support > and what not and who has to be contacted to make an arrangement. well, we are trying to figure that right now, my basic suggestion would be (3 categories): - guaranteed response within (a week, 2-3 days, 1 day) - guaranteed amount of time (1, 2-3, 4+ hours per month) - payment for work hours included (no, no, 4+) so that would work for all price classes IMHO, for example: a) small company (contributing back): CAT I contract, response within a week, 1 hour per month reserved, no payment for actual incident time included, total 50 EUR/month (excluding vat) b) medium size company (no problems to be expected) CAT II contract, response within 2-3 days, 2 hours per month reserved, no payment for actual incident time, total 50 EUR/week (excl. vat) c) large size company (with mission critical/experimental stuff) CAT III contract, response within 1 day, 8 hours per month reserved, 4 hours included, total 250 EUR/week note that those are guestimations, I still have to write down a price chart how to calculate each combination (maybe I do a web app :) so, what can you expect? - that I do not overbook my time, i.e. the guaranteed time will be available if you need it - that I will respond to your problem within the response time (usually earlier) - that I will use the hours not consumed by the customer to do Linux-VServer related work (coding, wiki, testing) HTC, Herbert > Cheers, > Christoph