All things equal - price, service etc. Would you switch to an ISP that both supported and used OSS and Linux?

I wanted to post a poll but I guess that I don't have enough posts. My bad.

If someone else could that would be great. This is for a paper I'm doing for school.

Would you switch ISP's if they used Linux and OSS?

1. Yes - I'd switch to help the movement
2. No - I really wouldn't care.

2. I really dont care.

if all things are equal, i'd just pick one. im not really caught up in the OSS movement and all that stuff.

it'd do it
but not if im going to be without internet for longer than a week during the switch

Well if they didn't support Linux, why would I pay the bill? I don't use windoze. I don't have a machine that does either.

Mine happens to not support it as far as technical support, but they use Linux for their servers. I have had no problems with the service either.

So #1 I guess.

Am I the only nut that doesn't use windows at all?

It beats windoze crashing all the time huh? How's that Bill Gates?

Later

I second that!!
I would switch to a linux friendly ISP.

And Dalek,
I use Linux aswell, but not completly , I have a pc witch runs Xp-oo.... for comparison only, to see which lasts the longest with out error &/or problems.
The score till now is
Linux 12 Xp-oo 1 (only because I foced a crash on Linux )

Ginux

Doesnt really matter to me as long as I can run linux, I'm happy.

if all things were same i would switch.

however i dont really need tech support, except if im having some problems and wondering if it's with my setup or just an outage in my area. so that doesnt really matter.

also other than support i dont see why it would matter...i would never ever use an isp that requires operating system specific program that will authenticate you or log you on or whatever. an isp should do nothing but send over the data that you request, no programs, no ports blocked and whatever.

right now my isp adelphia is blocking all icmp traffic, and some ports im sure. thats bad but it's no where near as bad as isps that have programs which you must use to logon.

Maybe - It depends if they are better/worse then what I have now

Anyone can create poll's but you have to specify to create one when your first creating the thread.

Well most ISP's are already using, supporting and running OSS. Its just they can't provide that frontline to customer technical type support for these types of programs as there are too many out there to have a staff that could support them. Just like Linux, there are so many variations its almost or would actually cost ISP's way too much money to train individuals to have knowledge regarding them, etc.

And in most cases the support for ISP's is limited anyways. Most will only support and help configuring the browser to work with their service and setting up email in something they recommend, which is sadly Outlook Express. In most cases since there are even so many different email clients, they limit the support to one or two popular ones even.

So would I switch ISP's if they supported OSS, probably not cause I would know more than the people I'm calling as I know they would be some first level monkey on a phone that couldn't help me...

Cheers..

I did click on the poll - but it said I had to have atleast 5 ( I think ) posts before I could create a poll.

I'd vote (1).

As long as I can still use Linux with whatever service I have, it doesn't matter to me that much. I understand that most ISPs don't have the staff training to support all the OSS variations that are out there, but it does irk me sometimes that they don't seem to even acknowledge their existence. When they say "Windows required", it's not really true. I wouldn't think it would be too difficult, in terms of staffing, to get some kind of Linux support, though. Heck, a lot of the posters here at LQ would be qualified to help people get ISPs going on most distributions, especially if they were offered cash incentives

What bugs me the most about ISPs, at least those I've dealt with, is their reluctance to even lend me a hand with getting my internet working in Linux. The last cable provider I used said "we'll give you the cables and hardware, and we'll hook up the modem, but from there you're on your own." Not a problem, since I generally know what I'm doing, but my current cable provider went one step further. I have a router/firewall networked to two boxes now; when the cable guy came to hook stuff up, he refused to connect the modem to the router, quoting company policy that only one computer is "allowed" to use the internet connection. Routers are strictly forbidden, and supposedly if I want a home network with internet access, I am supposed to pay extra to the cable company. (I read their policy - it turns out that "servers" are forbidden also. I know they are trying to prevent someone from using their cable service for commercial purposes, but the language is vague enough to disallow practically any service that a Linux box ordinarily runs. Can I not run XFree86 now, because it uses a client/server model? Can I not run sshd or nfsd for my home network? It's silliness.)

So he left me with all the hardware to do the work myself. For this, they charge an installation fee?

So yeah, if an ISP made the extra effort to give at least some support to us Linux users, I would definitely consider being their customer.