Earlier today I received a phone call from an old colleague, it was a request for some information about a systems monitoring utility called Big Brother – which was reincarnated as Hobbit then as Xymon as Hobbit turned out to be a registered trademark. The conversation was quite short, however on reflection quite humorous – it went something like this.

Me :- Hello it’s me here.

Him :- Hi, it’s XXX here – how are you?

Me :- I’m fine what can I do for you?

Him :- Quick question, what’s the license cost of Big Brother.

Me :- The proprietary version or the free version.

Him :- The free version.

Me :- It’s free…….

Him :- Oh, if it’s free they won’t use it – what about Patrol?

Me :- Well I think that we’re about One Million a year for our setup.

Him :- That’s expensive (Or words to that effect), any other options?

Me :- You could try Nagios or Xymon and suggest that they buy support!

Him :- That might work! Do you fancy a beer some time?

Me :- Yes, that would be good.

Him :- OK, I’ll give you a call soon and we can go for a pint.

Still the monolithic organisation that he works for wouldn’t have a clue about software like Xymon or Nagios, in fact it’s a surprise that they even know about Patrol and it’s been around forever.