> Backporting upstream patches by request, enhancing upstream, help debugging difficult, multi-level issues and so on. I also took it for granted but seeing what I see today, I understand.
I guess to me if you don't have the expertise in-house as a tech company, I think you have issues because you are outsourcing core competencies [the ability compile & maintain linux related software, the ability to debug complex issues that are likely part of generating your competitive advantage in someway].
There are silent corruption bugs in storage drivers for example. Having that kind of competency in-house is too expensive for most companies.(Not Spotify in this case, but problem could be much harder to fix)
That is the description of a hardware problem that the vendor they bought the hardware from was unable to resolve due to an unsupported OS.
That is where picking the right hardware vendor comes in. I wouldn't ask my OS vendor to support my hardware choices unless they specifically certified it. Neither Debian or Ubuntu certified that raid card...which puts you back to square 1 again, rendering their support moot.
I guess to me if you don't have the expertise in-house as a tech company, I think you have issues because you are outsourcing core competencies [the ability compile & maintain linux related software, the ability to debug complex issues that are likely part of generating your competitive advantage in someway].