This is a problem throughout the industry at the moment - too many
small ISP's - it's getting so that any geek with more than one
phone line and a modem can call himself an ISP these days.
<shameless plug>
I've been with First Link Internet Services
(www.fl.net.au) for about 4 years now and, apart from the usual
teething problems when they started up, I've had no problems. Yes,
they're small, but the tech support staff (all 2 of them !!) know
their O/S's - if they don't know something, they can at least point
users in the right direction or find out for them. They are also
very responsive to new services required by users (i.e. Microsloth
Small Business Server and Linux), and will tailor a package /
service at what I consider reasonable rates.
</shameless plug>
When it comes down to tech support, how much does the average Linux
user really need - almost without question, the newest of newbies
knows more about configuring Linux than 99% of ISP's these days. We
have SLUG as a resource (and a damn fine one it is !!).
Not only would I recommend staying away from anyone who doesn't
support Linux (even unofficially), but I'd stay away from Telstra
(we use BigSwamp at work and it's SLOW, and their cable is 4 times
slower than Optus@home), UUNET / Compuserve (no technical support
of ANY kind, it seems), and Ozemail (we're the biggest, we can be
arrogant and not return calls, etc.)
It would be nice, but probably a loosing proposition business-wise,
to see an ISP who supported LINUX as their client-of-choice, with
EvilWare in all its' variants given 2nd (or third) place in the
pecking order. Perhaps someone knows of one of these already ?
--
Regards,
Jon
------------------------------------------------------------------
"It is irresponsible to connect a Windows machine to the Internet"
....John Wiltshire - SLUG
--
SLUG - Sydney Linux User Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/
More Info: http://slug.org.au/lists/listinfo/slug
