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SubjectRe: APC, Your company is making a mistake!
On Sat, 10 Oct 1998, Micah Yoder wrote:

>Regarding this letter which was recently sent to APC and the RedHat
>mailing list,
>
>I too will soon be buying a UPS for a server. One of my top concerns is
>open source drivers. Unless APC changes its policy on this soon I will
>almost certainly go with Best.


Just yesterday afternoon, I was at a colleague's workplace
afterhours working on some computers, and mentioned my UPS
problem. They have a Best Fortress UPS, I'm not sure what the
exact model is but can certainly find out if anyone is
interested. This thing is a very nice beast! It is quite a huge
UPS, larger than my current needs require, but nonetheless it was
a nice piece of equipment.

At any rate, he told me some stories of power outages, etc that
they had had in the past with an APC unit, and when their server
was NT, it worked fine most of the time. They did lose data on a
couple occasions, and it was difficult to point fingers at either
the APC software, or at NT. Due to other problems with NT,
they've switched to using a Linux server, and their UPS did not
work with Linux properly due to lack of support. Since they
cannot afford to fiddle around, they investigated the market, and
discovered Best.

Since then, they've put the Best UPS into place, and have
software running flawlessly under Linux, with source code, etc...
Full specifications, and helpful support on the phone as well,
from Best.

He give me a demonstration of the Best Ferrups UPS by yanking the
plug, etc... and showing me the software for Linux. I must say
that I was impressed with what I saw, and moreso that Best
directly supports Linux like they do.

I'm awaiting a reply from APC currently about info on their
products, as well as Tripp Lite, but so far from what everyone is
saying, "Best" seems to be the better product technically, as
well as for support. I need to have support across platforms for
the equipment that I buy, and when a company is flexible like
Best is, that catches my eye. When I see people raving about how
great their products are, and see it for myself, then my eyes
open wider - and so does my wallet.

When I started out, I was leaning towards APC, however now after
some investigation, I'm leaning more heavily towards Best for
deployment with my customers. I mean, if I can easily support
many platforms with one product, why mix and match different
vendors for different customers? I personally like to stick with
well known companies, ones that support their product as much as
possible. Open sourcing specs and code, is surely one way to
catch my eye, and my money.

Linux is a growing field of endeavour. Open source is a good
thing. Companies that support open source, and support Linux,
will certainly be cashing in as Linux usage explodes over the
next few years.

Anyone interested in checking out the wonderful Best Power
products, please visit:

http://www.bestpower.com

And more specifically:

http://www.bestpower.com/productlist/pricing/communications_and_connectivity.htm

This page shows the multiplatform support they offer. It is
quite extensive. All UNIX software comes with source code.

Damned good way of doing business IMHO. I'll see what my
customers think about the various options that are available, and
post back.

So far, I'm practically sold on Best, unless some miracle happens
or some salesman convinces me otherwise.

What are other people's experiences with Best?

--
Mike A. Harris - Computer Consultant - Linux advocate

Linux software galore: http://freshmeat.net


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