[TriLUG] Re: OT: Dial-Up ISP

[Ben Pitzer]

Ken,

All I'll say here is that I'm not in charge of the support operations for
RR, only the network and systems infrastructure.  I have no control over how
they support or fail to support anything.  I've been similarly frustrated in
the past when I was an RR customer, prior to working here.  I believe that
I've made my point of view on supporting Linux about as clear as I can, and
while I can't make any statements of a personal nature with regards to RR's
support policies, I hope that my being a member of this group, a Linux user
and advocate, and my willingness to help out members of this group who have
been frustrated with RR support in the past will speak for itself.  I'm not
front line tech support, and  I won't help you out if you come to me first.
But I've said before that folks who have problems or questions that I can
help with are welcome to contact me if they are unable to get any help or
response from the RR support department.  I won't be able to help in every
case, but I'll see what I can do.

Regards,
Ben Pitzer

---------------------------------------------

"Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
 --Ben Franklin--




> -----Original Message-----
> From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org]On
> Behalf Of Ken Mink
> Sent: Monday, May 10, 2004 11:43 AM
> To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
> Subject: [TriLUG] Re: OT: Dial-Up ISP
>
>
> Hey Ben,
>     I completely understand your point of view about supporting Linux. I
> don't expect RR to support Linux. The number of distros and the number
> of version in each distro make that unreasonable.
>      However, I expect an ISP to support their network. I called RR
> support because my connection was down. I mean the lights were on on
> the modem, but I could not ping out. Once I said that I was running
> Linux, the support drone stated that they did not support Linux and
> could not  help me. When I pushed that I wanted support of the network
> not my machine, the drone held the corporate line and eventually hung
> up on me. I did get kind of hot, but never swore nor was I abusive. I
> was really pissed off at that point. That is Linux UNFRIENDLY.
>      I have never expected an ISP to support my Linux machine. ISPs
> provide network connectivity and I expect then to support their
> network. A network does not, or rather should not, depend on the
> machine I'm using. Simply supporting the network connection regardless
> of the OS of the client would be Linux friendly enough for me.
>
> Ken
>
>
> On May 8, 2004, at 1:31 PM, Ben Pitzer wrote:
>
> > Mike,
> >
> > Well, take it from a career ISP man:  If you have enough customers to
> > keep
> > yourself in business, it's not practical to support every possible
> > piece of
> > software that they might be running.  Fact is, there are half a dozen
> > different modem dialers for Linux.  Add to that the different modems
> > that
> > Linux might or might not support, 50 different distros, and the fact
> > that
> > two people running the same distro might have boxes that look
> > completely
> > different from one another, and you've got a support quagmire that's
> > just
> > ridiculous.  You can't support Linux in a cost-effective manner (as an
> > ISP,
> <SNIP>
> ---------------------------------------------
> "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
> safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."--Benjamin Franklin
> " 'Necessity' is the plea for every infringement of human liberty; it
> is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves."--William Pitt
>
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