How Critical Is It To Use an ISP Running FreeBSD or BSD/OS?

[Kevin Stevens]

On Jul 10, 2004, at 17:33, Jerry McAllister wrote:

>>
>> On Sat, 10 Jul 2004 19:09:13 -0400, Bob Perry <rperry4 at earthlink.net> 
>> wrote:
>>> Hello,
>>> I remember reading in The Complete FreeBSD, by Greg Lehey, that 
>>> you'll
>>> be better off with an ISP that runs FreeBSD or BSD/OS.  Can anyone
>>> provide a scenario(s) where this would be most apparent?
>>
>> I don't know Greg's reasoning for that statement but it does seem
>> rather wrong to me. Would you judge a waitress on their choice of
>> shoes? Of course not, you'd
>> judge them based on their service. Would you decide on who to hire to 
>> build you
>> a fence based on what kind of screwdriver they use?
>>
>> Why would you choose an ISP based on what tool they use to provide 
>> you with a
>> service?
>
> Well, first it reflects on their judgement.  If they run on FreeBSD, I
> give them credit for better jedgement.   Secondly, if you have problems
> or questions, you are more likely to get an intelligent answer if they
> run one of the BSDs.  If they run MS, they are more likely to just say
> they don't support anything different when you ask.

In an ISP of any size, the CS reps will be almost totally divorced from 
the infrastructure team.  What OS' they support for customers has very 
little to do with what they run on the backside.

KeS