Gavin Denby wrote:

Welcome to the bad support for linux in NZ , sorry but its by pet annoyance, try to get slackware- current

The reality of Internet in New Zealand is, until recently with UBS, most customers haven't been able to get access that differentiates between international and national downloads. There are people on this list that offer to download almost anything for anyone. You can probably also find it on Trade Me or copyleft.co.nz. I'd hardly call that bad support for Linux in NZ. Craig

Gavin You have every right to complain. I am going to make some observations in the next few lines that I hope no one takes as New Zealand bashing because it is not intended as such. I moved here from Canada 2 months ago and am greatly disappointed in the level of service in the broadband market. The best account that I have found here so far (after much looking) is 2mbs with a 30G data transfer allowance for $90 per month. My account back home was 5mbs with a transfer allowance of 60G and it was $65(nz) per month. New Zealanders love their technology as much as the next guy but did you know that Kiwi's pay more per capita for information and communications technology than anyone else in the world? At the dawn of broadband some 8 years ago countries like Canada and the States setup strategies for wide spread deployment of broadband. To quote the "Digital Strategy" released by the NZ government in May of this year in regard to performance targets, "Work with industry and users to establish achievable, accountable, challenging broadband targets" by the year 2010. That sounds a lot like showing up after the parties over. If you ask me ( and I know no one really did, these are only observations) there is an election going on, it's time to make some noise. Under 40% of Kiwi's have internet access with less than 10% having broadband. In Canada about 80% of people have internet access and 2/3rds of them are broadband users. By the way I got the numbers at ( http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inimr-ri.nsf/en/gr127242e.html ) I don't think Gavin needs to apologize for his comments I think he needs to be joined. Only competition and government are going to get things to change and the more people that make noise that they aren't happy with the status-quo are going to make things change. Well that's my 2 cents worth (5 cents in NZ on rounding) and I hope I didn't rain on anyones parade. These are observations done by some one who has recently come here and may have a bit of a "seeing the forest for the trees" perspective. You guys want better service? You need better service? You deserve better service? Make some noise! There is better out there. Once again I'm not NZ bashing I think the average Kiwi deserves better for less. I also know that there are factors here that aren't in Canada, I'd just like to see us get a lot more bang for our buck. Dave Waddling On August 24, 2005 04:55 pm, Gavin Denby wrote:

Yes it was a throwaway, and perhaps unwise comment

I just get frustrated that FTP sites in NZ, which are usually faster than off-shore sites, and reduce load on the isp's tend to have distros many versions behind current.

With slackware locked down for 10.2, its frustrating that my own isp ( No I wont Name it, but its very obvious ) still hosts only 9.1

After emails phone calls, and even letters ... its still 9.1 and no-one cares.

so I use my unlimited account to download from europe and it costs them again( I know others on the same isp who do the same), so they would financially benefit from an up to date mirror. The current situation is not really in anyones best interest, I just wish NZ mirrors would actually mirror.

And yes Lugs do offer good support, copyleft and the like are good tools, debian.co.nz is a generous contributor. There is good support for most linux distro's in NZ. Even DSE has good well priced sets for most people, I will always hack, and will always be pulling down new versions, but with regard to FTP sites I would prefer that the old versions were updated, or if they wont update .. delete them and be honest that they dont want to mirror linux. (yes I know BSD users have the same complaints.)

As I said its a pet peeve, and I hope that no-one was offended. It was just a throw away coment which I posted in a post that was made with a genuine intention to help a fellow linux user with information on knoppix DVD releases, that I had just read about.

If I offended anyone I appologise unreservedly. I also thank those who do support so many distros, I know we can never carry them all and some must be left out. Thanks for all you do.

Hopefully Case Closed.

Gavin

Craig Box wrote:

...

Gavin Denby wrote:

...

Welcome to the bad support for linux in NZ , sorry but its by pet annoyance, try to get slackware- current

The reality of Internet in New Zealand is, until recently with UBS, most customers haven't been able to get access that differentiates between international and national downloads.

There are people on this list that offer to download almost anything for anyone. You can probably also find it on Trade Me or copyleft.co.nz. I'd hardly call that bad support for Linux in NZ.

Craig

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