Slashdot Mirror
Non-Profit Australian ISP: Thrift Through Penguins
An unnamed correspondent writes: "Typically, rural areas in Australia have been left behind when it comes to adopting new technologies, inlcuding the Internet. GrowZone Online is a Linux powered, non-profit ISP that has over 40 points of presence covering an area of 412,000 square kilometers across South Central Queensland, Australia. What was achieved by the small technical team is quite remarkable, including hacking pppd to support Radius Authentication, MicroSoft CBCP Client-Server support with Radius Integration as well as Idle and Session Timeout functionality. The article is at LinuxWorld.com.au under Enterprise." A 7-man team that's dealt with such a distributed network's administration while hacking pppd deserves some recognition. Note to Americans: 412,000 square kilometers is about 3/5 the size of Texas.
Under the basic principles of capitalism, for-profit ISPs offer us the assurance of quality. There are many, many ISPs all competing these days, and for the most part, it's a level playing field. No ISP could risk offering a poorer package than its competitors, or all its customers would switch and run the ISP out of business -- this is why "pay per hour" plans died out so quickly. On the other hand, a non-profit ISP isn't out to make money, so why do they care what you think of them?
Now, given that Australia Internet is currently severely restricted by the Telus monopoly (which is, to be certain, idiotic), you might think that is still a improvement. But it seems to me like that this isn't much better -- sure, it might be non-profit, but if it doesn't have incentive to improve, you might wind up stuck using a ridiculously overpriced ISP with terrible customer service. And you know what? They won't care, because they don't want your money.
Not only that, but poor standards for Australian Internet access is only to going to lead to trouble down the line -- people begin to accept what they use as being "the standard", and are reluctant to demand something better. Why do you think people don't care about stuff like the Internet Millennium Copyright Act or M1cr05of7's monopolies? Even dictators can wield power over Third World countries, and no one cares. Because people are used to the way things are now, and don't see things the way they should be. Better isn't always good enough.