said by SLD:I don't feel that I'm "better", I just pointed out that the myth that Cisco is the best way to go is false. BTW, the featues that you listed are available in my other vendor's equipment, including 3Com (HP now).
thats great. many other manufacturers make such gear too (juniper, force10, brocade, etc.). the issue isn't always availability or price, but the level of support you can get, both directly from the manufacturer and through other outlets. cisco (due to its popularity) has support everywhere, from millions of configuration examples on the website, to knowledge base articles, to mailing lists, to random bloggers. thats not including tac support for when things really go pear shaped.
i am not any better than someone who uses brand "j" or brand "f" if they can use their preferred gear and make it do the same things. even better if they can do it for less work or less upfront gear cost. i know that there are several places that juniper has cisco beat *hands down* and have used j* gear to fill that need. part of being a *good* network engineer is knowing what works best for the situation you're in, being able to justify that business case (especially if it deviates from prior purchases) and then design the solution without any issues. the "myth" that cisco is better doesn't exist for people who are regularly in the design and testing phase of network deployment.
do i *prefer* cisco -- yes, its what i've been using and learning on for the better part of 8 years. do i critcize cisco for business decisions? sure. look at my posting history regarding linksys products, the new cisco licensing methods, as well as any number of rants/complaints i have about syntactical differences between minor code revisions or features appearing in a release (and being robust and stable) only to disappear in another release. no company is perfect and everyone has a personal choice. i've had bad experiences with procurve switches in the past and have tended to shy away from them. you make them work. in the end, we both win.
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