[wplug] Question on ISP rec's for Ligonier Area

[Keir Josephson]

On Thursday, October 2, 2003, at 11:39  AM, <griffisb at bellsouth.net> 
wrote:

> Hey all,
>
>    I'm a member of Atlanta's Linux User's Group - Ale. Not a 
> meeting-goer, but I do participate in the list. Anyway - my sister is 
> up in Ligonier and I am putting together a laptop for her. I'm 
> weighing the advantages/disadvantages of a few distributions and 
> researching dial-up connectivity in Ligonier PA.
>
>    My sister is a Windows person, but I was thinking of installing 
> Linux on the laptop (I purchased a Dell laptop off Dell Financial 
> Services on E-Bay. They come with no OS installed - plus I think Linux 
> is a GOOD thing). I have experience in Mandrake and SuSE, and just a 
> little bit of experience in Debian.
>
>    My questions are:
> 1. If you were to install a Linux OS for a remote newbie, what would 
> you install? I'm leaning towards RH or SuSE as their manuals are very 
> easy to follow. She would mainly be doing web surfing, e-mail, and 
> writing documents (so Open Office would be installed).

Mandrake with KDE. It's the best that I've seen especially with 
handling most multimedia for the web with the default install. 
Although, I must admit that I have not tried the Debian distro, as of 
yet.

>
> 2. If you were to pre-pay an ISP for 6 months or a year, what ISP 
> would you pick? I have good experiences with AT&T and Earthlink, but 
> have no experience with any local ISP's that might have better prices.

Out there, it's anybody's guess, but I'd bet some of the bigger firms 
have some kind of presence there. You might want to check Verizon or 
the local cable company for broadband. She might end up saving money in 
the long run if there's no local dial-up # for her to dial. Plus, the 
phone lines in many of the more rural areas of PA aren't that great so 
a 56k connection isn't always guaranteed.

-Keir

>
> 3. Would you find if I point my sis at your LUG? She would be 
> completely new to Linux and I don't want her floundering. I'll work on 
> answering questions for her, and pointing her to appropriate 
> documentation sources and google - but local sources of information 
> could probably help her out. I'd ask her to call/e-mail me with any 
> tech support questions first, to cut down on overwhelming your group 
> with newbie questions.
>
> Bruce
>
>
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