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,
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