<html><body>Hello Martin,   I don't think that it would be a bad idea for Canonical to have a North American office to service a growing customer base.  As sales and support contracts increase I am sure they will have one either way. Have a great day, Joe Date: Fri, 5 Oct 2007 21:53:32 -0400 From: "Martin Owens" <<a href="https://email.secureserver.net/webmail.php?folder=INBOX&firstMessage=1#Compose" onclick="Popup.composeWindow('pcompose.php?sendto=doctormo%40gmail.com'); return false;">doctormo@gmail.com</a>> Subject: Re: Buying Ubuntu Support from Canonical not as smooth as running the Operating System! To: "Kristian Erik Hermansen" <<a href="https://email.secureserver.net/webmail.php?folder=INBOX&firstMessage=1#Compose" onclick="Popup.composeWindow('pcompose.php?sendto=kristian.hermansen%40gmail.com'); return false;">kristian.hermansen@gmail.com</a>> Cc: SVLUG <<a href="https://email.secureserver.net/webmail.php?folder=INBOX&firstMessage=1#Compose" onclick="Popup.composeWindow('pcompose.php?sendto=svlug%40lists.svlug.org'); return false;">svlug@lists.svlug.org</a>>, Linux Users Group <<a href="https://email.secureserver.net/webmail.php?folder=INBOX&firstMessage=1#Compose" onclick="Popup.composeWindow('pcompose.php?sendto=umasslug%40ecs.umass.edu'); return false;">umasslug@ecs.umass.edu</a>>, L-blu List <<a href="https://email.secureserver.net/webmail.php?folder=INBOX&firstMessage=1#Compose" onclick="Popup.composeWindow('pcompose.php?sendto=discuss%40blu.org'); return false;">discuss@blu.org</a>>, Ubuntu MA <<a href="https://email.secureserver.net/webmail.php?folder=INBOX&firstMessage=1#Compose" onclick="Popup.composeWindow('pcompose.php?sendto=ubuntu-us-ma%40lists.ubuntu.com'); return false;">ubuntu-us-ma@lists.ubuntu.com</a>>, SFLUG Mailing List <<a href="https://email.secureserver.net/webmail.php?folder=INBOX&firstMessage=1#Compose" onclick="Popup.composeWindow('pcompose.php?sendto=sf-lug%40linuxmafia.com'); return false;">sf-lug@linuxmafia.com</a>>, <a href="https://email.secureserver.net/webmail.php?folder=INBOX&firstMessage=1#Compose" onclick="Popup.composeWindow('pcompose.php?sendto=ubuntu-server%40lists.ubuntu.com'); return false;">ubuntu-server@lists.ubuntu.com</a> Message-ID: <<a href="https://email.secureserver.net/webmail.php?folder=INBOX&firstMessage=1#Compose" onclick="Popup.composeWindow('pcompose.php?sendto=69ff73b20710051853lbba6eb2v140fb1afb702cece%40mail.gmail.com'); return false;">69ff73b20710051853lbba6eb2v140fb1afb702cece@mail.gmail.com</a>> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 > > Wouldn't you agree that faxing things along these days is quite > tedious when we have superior technology at our disposal. I could > have scanned it in and sent it via email for sure, and I just didn't > have access to a scanner immediately. However, I think that since USA > is such a large country with a lot of money to spend on such support > agreements, it may be wise to set up a toll free number, if they > really need to accept faxes from Americans. I quite agree, faxing signed documents is quite daft, especially when digitally signed documents are accepted in court plus you have the added weapon of launchpad which almost forces everyone to have signed keys anyway; might as well use them for something. > Of course, I could be living in my own little world here. Maybe > Americans are too whiny and need to change. I am not sure. I guess > Canonical would need to take into consideration the pros/cons of doing > such things. It is up to them, not me, but as you can see, I didn't > have a great experience and I am a huge Ubuntu fan... There is a justification for starting or help starting a US based ubuntu business; although it occurs to me that Canonical isn't a traditional business in that it just sets up shop in the local market. what it wants is for someone else to set up a local business to sell support contracts in that market with the backing of canonical as the second tier 'damn is completely foo' support line (complete it appears with British accents) So for canonical it might be worth them re-directing international enquiries to more local or a bunch of local support businesses (who can then fight it out amongst themselves for this market) and it leaves canonical able to focus on pushing it's support network and hub. Or at least that is what I'd do. Best Regards, Martin Owens ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Joseph Guarino <a href="http://www.evolutionaryit.com" mce_href="http://www.evolutionaryit.com">www.evolutionaryit.com</a> Evolutionary IT - Best Practice IT(tm) 888.404.5074 (Office) 617.953.9514 (Mobile) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ </body></html>