Issues:
- The present buying advice for Athena is a mess.
- The hardware recommendations are long obsolete.
- The services offered and pricing are incorrect.
- The presentation is confusing.
Approach to resolving Issues:
- Simplify.
- Identify the few services we wish to continue offering.
- Create simple descriptions of the services.
- Align the hardware recommendations with other recommendations.
- Delete obsolete pages.
- Replace unique "Buy Athena" pages with paragraphs added to other recommendations.
Current Entrypoints to "Buy Athena"
- Hardware at MIT:
Buying Hardware: and Recommended Hardware
Athena Workstations (purchasing.html)
Hardware Repair and Upgrades:
Athena System Deployment and Repair
(WAY out of date Cluster Services Page) - Computer Buying Advice:
Related Links: Athena Workstations & Hardware (saws_configs.html) - Linux at MIT:
Hardware:
MIT Linux Hardware Recommendations
Has short Athena: paragraph at end pointing to saws_configs.html and server_configs.html - Athena at MIT:
Getting an Athena System:
Options for Purchasing an Athena System (options.html)
New Service Models
Originally, two classes of Athena, "Full Service Athena" and "Minimal Standard Athena" were created to answer the concern that customers would dodge paying Athena fees and then show up asking for services we normally charge for. The model of "You pay Athena fees, and get a monolithic distribution on circumscribed hardware, but get to call someone to make a house call to do a re-install," has become progressively less important. The model of, "Customers buy what they want, and accept some responsibility for taking care of what they bought, but we help where we can," is becoming more important.
Athena10 will still support a monolithic install for present users of the Athena Cluster Workstation model, but will be primarily designed to be installed on top of pre-installed Ubuntu Linux Systems.
So let us get rid of "Full Service Athena" and "Minimal Standard Athena" products and instead publish the Linux hardware recommendations with:
- instructions for installing Athena,
- clarification of using PC Services for carry-in repair even if you run Linux or Athena and
- offer "Athena System Deployment and Repair Service". Naturally this service is only available for the EXACT Linux hardware recommendation that is current canon for Athena.
Originally it was commonplace to purchase an Athena workstation and deploy it as a server, or to look to Athena recommendations for server hardware. In practice the server configuration docs were not as well maintained as the desktop configuration documents. Although there are still some customers following the Athena links for server advice, this services is almost unused. Instead let's exit the "Athena Server Recommendation" business, nuke athena/server_configs.html, and instead point people at Server Operations: Pricing.
Proposed Next Steps
- Hardware at MIT:
Buying Hardware:
Delete link:
Athena Workstations (purchasing.html)
Recommended Hardware
Replace Link:
Athena Workstations (purchasing.html)
with Link:
MIT Linux Hardware Recommendations
Related Services
New Link: Athena at MIT
Hardware Repair and Upgrades:
Cut old link to:
Athena System Deployment and Repair (web.mit.edu/dcnshtml/support/support.html)
and link to new page that describes the service on offer, the annual fee, and any additional restrictions like compliance with currend Linux recommendations. - Computer Buying Advice:
Related Links:
Delete link:
Athena Workstations & Hardware (saws_configs.html) - Linux at MIT:
Hardware:
MIT Linux Hardware Recommendations
Athena:
Rewrite this paragraph. Instead of server_configs.html point to: Server Operations: Pricing. - Athena at MIT:
Getting an Athena System:
Leave unchanged.
Options for Purchasing an Athena System (options.html) - Options for Purchasing an Athena System (options.html)
Rewrite. Describe options:- Recommended Hardware and Cluster Services. Point to: new Athena System Deployment and Repair.
- Recommended Hardware but you install it yourself. PC Service repair option.
- Coming Soon: Install Ubuntu and add Athena.
- Possible Athena VM option.
- Servers: Point to: Server Operations: Pricing.
- Server Operations: Pricing.
Add a little bit more for Athena servers. - Athena at MIT: Purchasing an Athena Workstation or Server
Nothing should be pointing at this page. Nuke. - Full Service Athena
Salvage any useful text for the Options page and then nuke. - Minimal Standard Athena
Salvage any useful text for the Options page and then nuke. - Athena at MIT: Recommended and Supported Athena Configurations
Salvage any useful text for Options page and then nuke.
There are probably LOTS of people who bookmarked saws_configs.html. Consider putting a redirect for "saws_configs.html" to options.html. - Athena at MIT: Recommended and Supported Athena Server Configurations
Salvage any useful text for Options page and then nuke. - Athena Workstation and Server Configurations: Life-Cycle Summary
DONE Spin Dead list into separate doc.
Update with current situation.