Section 14.2. Commercial Support

14.2. Commercial Support

There are six basic support oriented services that are most commonly sought by Samba sites:

• Assistance with network design

• Staff Training

• Assistance with Samba network deployment and installation

• Priority telephone or email Samba configuration assistance

• Trouble-shooting and diagnostic assistance

• Provision of quality assured ready-to-install Samba binary packages

Information regarding companies that provide professional Samba support can be obtained by performing a Google search, as well as by reference to the Samba Support^[4] web page. Companies who notify the Samba Team that they provide commercial support are given a free listing that is sorted by the country of origin. Multiple listings are permitted, however no guarantee is offered. It is left to you to qualify a support provider and to satisfy yourself that both the company and its staff are able to deliver what is required of them.

^[4] <http://www.samba.org/samba/support.html>

The policy within the Samba Team is to treat all commercial support providers equally and to show no preference. As a result, Samba Team members who provide commercial support are lumped in with everyone else. You are encouraged to obtain the services needed from a company in your local area. The open source movement is pro-community; so do what you can to help a local business to prosper.

Open source software support can be found in any quality, at any price and in any place you can to obtain it. Over 180 companies around the world provide Samba support, there is no excuse for suffering in the mistaken belief that Samba is unsupported software it is supported.