Earlier quoted context omitted.
You almost never had to consult with a vendor, development team who wrote the stuff you're using, or otherwise 3rd party who supplied you with a piece of software or hardware you're using with your own software in those 20 years or was it in almost all cases a miserable experience? I agree paying a lot of money for simple additional features (the well known 'enterprise features') is in most cases unjustified, but sup…
It usually goes, identify problem, contact vendor, wait interminably, in the meantime find a fix or a workaround ourselves, get back in business, sometimes tell the vendor, sometimes not, depending. Vendor support almost never involves the guys who wrote the software, they're off in an ivory tower somewhere and would never deign to speak to a mere paying customer.
Re: My OpenBSD Story
#31Oh yeah very recognizable (I'm a professional software dev now for over 20 years too ;)). It's indeed key to have the dev of the software used to do support as well, at least for some time. I try to do support for my own work as well to stay in touch with what customers have to deal with so I can improve it. Has worked well over the years even though it's not always the greatest work.