On Thu, 2006-12-07 at 09:11 -0500, Paul Giordano wrote: > The issue is one of support. If you have a support contract with IBM, > Novell, or Redhat, it is for the code that they deliver, basically the > binary RPMs, and it is on a very tight turnaround timeframe. Compiling the > code outside of their model is not supported,
Perhaps not. Whether something is "supported", and the degree to which the vendor will assist in diagnosing a problem varies. I haven't met many vendors that take a hard line; when you're down, you're down, and reputable support organizations will do what they can and let the accountants sort it out later. That much said, you should be able to justify a mod, and better have the wherewithal to fix whatever you break, or be able to reproduce the problem on an unsullied system. If you don't have the chops, you shouldn't play. Support issues aside, the most important use for source is read-only: as a documentation supplement. You want to know what happens when you do *this*, you can always consult the source. This is especially important in a world where "messages and codes" books are unknown. -- David Andrews A. Duda and Sons, Inc. [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- For LINUX-390 subscribe / signoff / archive access instructions, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: INFO LINUX-390 or visit http://www.marist.edu/htbin/wlvindex?LINUX-390
