Re: [tlug] Linux in Pakistan (WAS: some hijacked thread)

["A. Sajjad Zaidi" <sajjad@example.com>]

On Sun, Feb 22, 2004 at 08:08:16PM -0800, Jonathan Byrne wrote:
> 
> Read "As stable as FreeBSD" (or pretty darned close :-)

:-)
It's hard enough promoting Linux. All I need is another couple of OSs to
push to people who freak out if someone updates their M$N messenger to a
newer and slightly different version.
:-)

> It still does.  You avoided the path to the dark side of Linux.
> I finally got my dad to stop using Mandrake and he is enjoying much better
> stability and far fewer problems on SuSE.  It's also a bit less gooey than
> Mandrake, so he might actually have to learn something now :-)

And I had to put my foot down when the people testing the different
distros refused to let go of Mandrake. We really wanted to give SuSE a
chance, but it isn't exactly free in every sense.

I really wanted to give Gentoo a chance, but never got around to testing
it and it's not something you can give away on a CD for newbies. I may
be hiring someone who's into Gentoo, so it does have a chance.

> So you're running an ISP on the side?  What's the state of DSL and/or cable
> in Pakistan?  What kind of ISP services are you providing?

Till a few months ago, only four ISPs had the license to provide DSL. Now
it's open to all though only a couple of them provide reliable
connectivity. DSL is becoming quite popular though the installation costs
are still too steep for homes and small offices.

The thing that bothers me the most is data transfer limits which was an
alien concept to me when I was back in Japan. A typical software company
would get a 128Kbps connection with a limit of 2GB on data (this is what
I have). Going over this limit means paying premium rates on every 100MB
(download+upload).

CableTV providors have tried to fill the gap, but they typically lack
*any* technical knowledge. Usually, they just put everyone on a dialup
connection through a Windows machine which they put to "rest" every few
hours. Now we'll be providing consultancy to these setups.

What I'm doing at my office is wiring the building and allowing others
access through our DSL connection with a Linux proxy/DNS/authentication
server in between. It's running splendidly well upto now.

The bigger projects directly related to Linux won't be materializing
anytime soon so this will be enough to keep us going for a now.

-- 
A. Sajjad Zaidi
iinix Solutions
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"Macou says "Delicious is always right"."

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