[NBLUG/talk] Low-cost ISP's and Linux

Mark Janes mkjanes at sonic.net
Thu Jan 29 09:52:00 PST 2004


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Hello,

~   I got to thinking about my visit to www.mygoboom.com, and I think
the issue I had is, MOST independent ISP's can be accessed using
Linux, but that's not the same as having an ISP which runs and
thoroughly understands Linux the way www.sonic.net does. While the
cost is somewhat more (~$18 and change per month), the level of
support and, frankly, candor (if they have a technical problem they
are really good about mentioning it on their homepage) adds value to
their service. Money is a real concern for me and I'm aware of
numerous ISP which provide dial-up access, website space, and e-mail
addresses for less than Sonic.net, but when I need to talk to someone
who understands Linux, they've always had the right answers at their
fingertips, which can be worth a great deal. BTW, Dave, Welcome to the
World of Linux! While Linux isn't perfect either, it's come a long way
in the past few years; when I started out with it just four years ago
I had to replace a fair amount of M$-dependent hardware, especially my
modem. My last couple of computer-related purchases showed me how much
this has changed: My Hewlett-Packard camera is readily accessible to
my Linux laptop (an IBM Thinkpad 770E), and a Lexar JumpDrive Trio (a
media card reader, available for around $20 at Wal-Mart) was again
readily recognized by Linux, which identified it as a USB-SCSI drive.
Once again, I was able to mount the JumpDrive and manipulate
files-read, write, and delete- as though it were any other drive.
Linux still tends to lag a bit when it comes to drivers for some
peripherals but that's improving as more vendors recognize the growing
popularity of Linux.

To quote the text of the latest IBM ad, "Linux is Ready."

Mark Janes
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