SourceLabs enables do-it-yourself Linux support
Open-source support company SourceLabs on Tuesday launched a subscription service aimed at Linux developers and IT administrators who do their own support.
Called Self-Support Suite for Linux, the offering includes software that monitors people's machines and a repository of 16 million known issues with Linux and open-source Java, said SourceLabs CEO Byron Sebastian.
SourceLabs' service gives users a search engine to help them locate information from their knowledge base to help resolve problems.
(Credit: SourceLabs)The company makes the bulk of its money from supporting open-source Java. But Sebastian said that he was surprised to find that there are a substantial number of people who either do their own support, or are looking for quicker responses to support problems.
The SourceLabs service lets developers or IT administrators query the company's database and it can send notifications, Sebastian said.
It's not likely that this sort of service will steal a lot of customers from Red Hat or Novell, but it sounds like a decent approach to resolving well-known problems.
After a free 30-day trial, the cost is $99 to monitor a developer Linux machine for a year or $399 for applications in production.
Martin LaMonica is a senior writer for CNET's Green Tech blog. He started at CNET News in 2002, covering IT and Web development. Before that, he was executive editor at IT publication InfoWorld. E-mail Martin. 
