Hello,
I still have not updated my mail-in-a-box server to Ubuntu LTS 18.04, and the lack of support is coming up in a matter of days. I’m trying to think if I am wanting to pay someone else to fix my problem, or if I will do it myself.
Any offers?
I am always around … PM me if you wish.
Yo I’ll bid on this.
@murgero, @alento, do either of you have a business license (usually these are issued by cities) anywhere in the Untied States? I’d like a way to get ahold of someone in real life, in case my data gets stolen.
How is $15 over Paypal to take my crap from Ubuntu 14.04 to Ubuntu 18.04? It looks like I will NOT be getting around to updating my stuff. Can we setup an appointment, and I give you VNC-over-SSH access to a Ubuntu desktop, so I can watch what you’re doing?
Hi Eliter -> I just wanted to chime in on this although I am in Europe (but do have a business license) but was quite surprised at your offer. I updated my MIAB and, although all went well I as busy for about 1 hour - 15 $ an hour for a business does not even begin to cover costs. I would be looking at 100 $ an hour. Just creating a bill for you would cost me 15$ 
Now if something goes wrong you could be in for a couple of hours of work… 15$ just does not being to cover costs.
That’s a bit steep, don’t you think?
I bet I can find a fully qualified Linux system administrator to do work for $25/hour, worst case scenario. The work I am asking someone to perform is very freaking easy stuff. I could do it myself, but I’m feeling a bit lazy. It will very likely take less than 3 hours to perform. I would MAYBE pay someone $100 for the entire job, pay throw in maybe $10-$40 for insurance, so they would be obligated to do extra work if it screws up as a cause of what they’re doing.
But I don’t really have $100 to spend on server maintenance, so I’m not really being picky on the person’s qualifications. I only asked for a business license so there is some sort of correlation between potentially-anonymous users online and their real life identity, without me needing highly sensitive information about them. Murgero seems to be down for doing this at a low cost, and it looks like Paypal business accounts requires identity verification, so that satisfies the purpose of needing a business license.
Also, if it costs $15 to write up a bill, you might need to replace your business tools. But you’re probably just joking. 
No, I do not think it is a bit steep → normal going rates here in Austria are between 100 - 150 € an hour for a qualified person (112 - 168 USD) - please remember we have a sales tax of 20% here. I am at the cheap end of the range charging “only” 100 USD. You wanted somebody with a business licence so I have to charge you GST as well i.e. 120 USD per hour 
I bet I can find a fully qualified Linux system administrator to do work for $25/hour
I cannot speak to USA but here you do not have a chance of that → maybe a student or somebody doing the work off the books,? Nobody will/can work for that here. Just a quick calculation → I assume that the work month has about 160 hours (we have a 38,5 hour work week here), I assume that I can “only” invoice about 100 hours per month (sick days, 5 weeks holiday per year, public holidays etc) which would mean $2.500 per month income. Lets say overhead is 500 $ per month (office, laptop, training etc). We have 14 paychecks a year (yes, 14 in Austria) which means 2.000 / * 12 (months per year) / 14 paychecks => 1.715 $ per month before tax. Are you sure you can find qualified people offering that as a salary? A normal salary here is about 2.800 € / month => linux people cost more as you cannot really find them here.
Also, if it costs $15 to write up a bill, you might need to replace your business tools.
But you’re probably just joking.
nope, not joking → we assume 50 € to create a bill here where I live → of course this is the cost of getting somebody to do it for me i.e. my bookkeeper - as I am a business I try and out-source as much of administration work if possible. Bookkeeping costs me 1 € per entry i.e. just the bookkeeping for your job costs 1.12 US$ i.e. about 5% of your offer. This is the reason I do not take “small” jobs i.e. anything less than 1/2 days work, the overhead is just too high (I cannot charge the customer for the invoice or my bookkeeping 
)
Sorry about the long answer, just kept on getting longer 
Sorry, was just expecting an invoice of “hey, I’ll do it for X amount of dollars” and a response of “sure” on the forum. Not really that formal.
It sounds like Austria is having a economic/political crisis if things are that expensive there. Across-the-board, sales tax is always less than 10% in the United States.
Also, if you are running a Linux administration business, it could be possible to reduce costs by having people work at home more often, maybe have a company office space for manager offices, and a conference room when you need to call people in physically. Maybe not feasible if you’re a government contractor dealing with highly sensitive information (i.e. classified information no one is allowed to take home), but I take it you’re on the commercial side of things.
Anyway, I think you’re too expensive for me. Not looking for a professional, just looking for someone who has a good idea about what they’re doing. Looks like I’ll have to see if Murgero is willing to do it, and got to slap together a Ubuntu Desktop box he can remote into. Thanks for the time! I’d be interested in seeing your business, maybe I’ll have a need for you sometime in the future.
It sounds like Austria is having a economic/political crisis if things are that expensive there. Across-the-board, sales tax is always less than 10% in the United States.
not at all but we do have universal healthcare, universal pension etc. which, of course, all costs money. Yes, life is more expensive here than in the states
Also, if you are running a Linux administration business, it could be possible to reduce costs by having people work at home more often, maybe have a company office space for manager offices, and a conference room when you need to call people in physically. Maybe not feasible if you’re a government contractor dealing with highly sensitive information (i.e. classified information no one is allowed to take home), but I take it you’re on the commercial side of things.
Even if the employee gets to keep the entire amount invoiced that would still only be 2.500 USD per month, don’t know many people who would work for that here!
Anyway, I think you’re too expensive for me. Not looking for a professional, just looking for someone who has a good idea about what they’re doing. Looks like I’ll have to see if Murgero is willing to do it, and got to slap together a Ubuntu Desktop box he can remote into. Thanks for the time! I’d be interested in seeing your business, maybe I’ll have a need for you sometime in the future.
Sorry, didn’t want to hijack your thread, just wanted to give some insight to costs. I’ll shut up now
I hope you find somebody to do it that fits your budget!
I was not being sarcastic. I am literally interested in your business, in the event I have a later need for you in the future. Got a website?
I charge over $100 an hour for business transactions, and about $35 an hour for personal stuff.
However if you need assistance in setting up a new MIAB instance, I can help with that for less if you are on a budget. But we will need to talk more in PM’s.
I am cheap compared to @murgero. I have been charging €50 an hour for business and €25 an hour for personal. But, I could never do the things that he can. See, for example:
Although for upgrading to Ubuntu 18.04, €50 is the least that I would consider as there is a LOT more work involved since there is existing data to be backed up and restored. That, and I do not enjoy doing the upgrades but I do love setting up new MiaB’s!
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Looks like I got around to doing an upgrade, and it was easy easy easy! @ursus_the_bear, I am waiting on your business info… I’m interested, in case I need you later on.
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Hey @Eliter, yeah upgrades are a breeze most of the time, unless something goes wrong – even then it is usually something simple!! I’m glad that it worked out for you.
I like to over complicate things when I do an upgrade … I will create a fresh backup (so that it is all in ONE file) and then copy and restore that, which is bbbbbboring, lol.
As the technical part of the topic is somewhat resolved I want to add a few things.
Let’s try and keep calm around here. This is a community made of people from different backgrounds, and as such, our technical skills are different.
Eliter - I could understand asking for help for free [as this is the purpose of this discourse], but you can’t make people work for the money you want. I am in no way trying to make you mad about this, please forgive me if it comes up like that.
I can say that the prices given by ursus_the_bear, alento and murgero are somewhat on par with what I charge in Romania [with a business license]. It goes from 35€ / h (older clients, simpler stuff) up to 70€ / h (newer clients, higher risk / urgent projects).
I’m glad you managed to do it yourself! I always feel great when I manage to do something new myself 
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