I'll preface this with this caveat - I'm an open source user. I use linux, *BSD, etc. However, I can absolutely understand the OP's frustration - I experience it daily using FOSS software, though maybe not to the degree he (she?) has. FOSS is always going to be a tradeoff - it's, well, free, but requires a lot more elbow grease in many cases. This is not an option if you need results yesterday, and have a surplus of cash to throw at problems. It's sometimes the only option if you have no cash and anly old P4 boxen lying around to use for your needs. But I digress...
The basic point is sound - I have run into more stumbling blocks using Zenoss than just about any other FOSS NMS I have used - this is most likely due to the overall configurability/complexity of Zenoss, but at the end of the day, it's still been difficult and often frustrating to use/explore. The documentation is very good, but somewhat scant in some areas. The fora are "friendly" but incredibly unresponsive - the number of posts w/o any answers is staggering, and many of these are easy questions. I try to answer these when I'm on the fora and see them - many times they are basic linux questions, not questions about Zenoss at all, per se. I simply cannot imagine trying to pickup linux and zenoss at the same time - I'd have no hair left. But again, I digress... The tradeoff is that Zenoss does appear to be doing a better job and seems to be heading in a better direction than these other projects - at least IMO/IME. Also, the comment about paying for this software rings a bell but also rubs me the wrong way. I abhor people who think that "free" is the most important part of FOSS, and find comments like "why would I ever *pay* for software?" distasteful. IMO these are not people who embrace FOSS, but people who are cheapskates and embrace skinflintery. HOWEVER... I'm basically test driving this software myself, so I see the point the OP has made since I'm been muttering it to myself recently as well. I'd *like* to press my company to buy support from Zenoss, but a) there's no way I could get even $50 x number of monitored nodes/year for a product that requires *lots* of my own time (is there a basic $$$ per trouble ticket option I've missed?), and b) I have to agree that so far upgrades have been a mess, etc, etc, so as far as a test drive goes, it hasn't exactly made me *want* to risk my reputation where I work for it. In summary - good/great product, FOSS is a big bonus IMO but fantastically frustrating on occasion. -------------------- m2f -------------------- Read this topic online here: http://community.zenoss.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=17367#17367 -------------------- m2f -------------------- _______________________________________________ zenoss-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.zenoss.org/mailman/listinfo/zenoss-users
