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[linux-team] Request For Comments: OPEN ISP.



Dear friends from the list, the following message is a proposal I would like
to discuss with you. I wrote it in a generic form, so it could be published
in the Linux Gazette. But while writing it, my main concern is the Belgian
Linux Community, in which I consider myself a member, although a new one (I
recently inmigrated from Venezuela).
I have published it in http://zeus.iufront.riu.ve/~cbetan/0800-LINUX.html
It is a proposal in the works, therefore I acknowledge it has flaws and
errors. I thank you all for your sugestions and feedback. I would like to
set-up a mailing list to discuss this project; I have resources in Venezuela
to set it up, but due to long network delays I think it's better to set it
up here in Belgium. Anyone willing to open one for this project?
The Linux Community in Belgium in very large and active, although I'm
sending this message only to the Linux-Team Mailing list because you are the
first ones I know. But we should propose this to all linux users in Belgium
in order to gather momentum.
Let the discussion begin!

Carlos Betancourt



0800-LINUX : Creating a Free Linux-only ISP


Imagine there's just Linux
No phone to pay
An Internet-free world.
Maybe I'm just a dreamer
but I'm not the only one.

Free Internet access. It's a sentence we hear everywhere. With the
proliferation of ISPs Internet access is getting hot... I mean, cool.
Whatever. Prices are going down everyday more. But
there's a limit. We always have to pay the phone company for our "free"
internet time. In countries where there is a PSTN Monopoly, usually the end
user is abused from the almighty phone
company. And in countries where local phone calls are free, users always
have to pay the ISP. Even if you are ok with that, we all must acknowledge
that being Linux users we get marginal
support from our ISPs. Yes, there are a lot of Linux-friendly ISPs, but what
about the power features, like encrypted PPP sessions, or Serial Load
Balance?

In this article, I want to begin a discussion of why the Linux community
needs a truly zero-cost and feature rich ISP, and how such a project would
benefit the entire Linux community , our
own countries, and the IT world in general. To reach this goals, I believe
the zero-cost ISP project should be Linux-Only oriented. Keep on reading,
and I'll expose why.

There have been efforts all around the world to bring Intener access costs
down, namely "Plain rates"; some have partially succeded, some others not.
Why? Because THEY DON'T HAVE
THE COMMUNITY SUPPORT/UNITY WE HAVE.

Why Linux needs a zero-cost ISP

The need is out there...here is what I believe a zero-cost ISP can do for
Linux and for Nations:

*Nurture the new Linux minds: as an intelligent species, we nurture the
youth to become the next generation of leaders and supporters of our
society. If we provide the means for our kids
and teenagers to learn and develop themselves we will be a successful
society in the long run. Professional Soccer/Baseball clubs have early
leagues where kids a grown up enhancing their
skills. Those who invest in the young ones are the ones who survive. I'm not
worried about Linux survival, but it's certain that by now we are still a
minority. And in this new IT era, we
need the people to support all the infrastructure we are building today, ten
years from now, even less.

Who in the family are the ones with less priority to use Internet, the
computer or the Phone? Kids. As simple as that. If you pay the phone by the
minute, most parents wouldn't like their
kids spend hours online. And if parents use the computer regularly, the kids
must get away from it. And most parents consider a computer a too expensive
toy to buy a new one for the kids.

If we, as a community , nourish our youth, we are going to have an
inevitable succes. Many people discuss, these days, about winning the
desktop war. Give kids Linux and we'll se five
years from now.

*Bring Enlightenment: or how to expand our user base: people use what they
are given to use. If you buy a new computer, which OS will you get by
default? I know this story is
ending, with recent support from Hardware integrators, or, for instance, the
deal between Corel and this MotherBoards manufacturer (please, submit links
to related news). Ok, from now on
people will have a choice, althogh not so soon. We as a community must
develop some strategy to attract people to our OS. How? Give them free, I
mean _free_, Internet access. (While
writing this article, I'm focusing to bring this project to life in Belgium,
where I live, and where due to our large Linux community I think we have the
keys to succed). We have to give
people a reason to use Linux. We have lots of ISPs around, each one trying
to have new customers using different strategies and features. They
distribute Windows-only setup CD-ROMs to
ease the subscription process. And most of them claim "Free Internet
Access". What it really is is a half-truth. You still have to pay the phone
call. There are some others that give you one
"free month", and then they charge you for a maximum amount of time online
per month, being the phone call free. Ok. But what they don't tell you, is
that you pay the phone calls during
this "free month". I just feel sick with all those half-truths, or should I
call them "half-lies"? Isn't a half-lie a lie anyway?

Now, imagine, we provide a truly free and unlimited (this point we have to
discuss. Remember, I'm just trying to build a discussion around this
subject) Internet access to anyone who
wants, only if they use Linux. I mean, like M$-Chap (fortunately pppd can
deal with that), we can develop some Linux-Chap, but I don't think it's
ethical; or is it? In case it's not ethical,
maybe accepting only ppp-encryption capable clients. We have to address all
this technical datails in a forum. But the main idea is: "Use Linux, and
you'll have free unlimited Internet
access. Just by using it on your computer". We already have everything to
fill the needs of end users: Web Browsers, Office Suites, Drawing tools,
etc., and more is coming.

*More bugs hunted: more eyes on the source code: if we bring more people to
Linux, we'll get more people interested on studying it's internals, learning
to program, developing
programs. I know not everyone, but if we get just one out of a thousand, and
we get some more millions of new users, it looks pretty sexy, eh? And if we
give them a way to download more
source core or binaries per unit of time, in the long run we'll have more
developers and/or bug reports. Just by reporting bugs, or what they
dislike/need from our OS, evolution is going to
accelerate. And remember, we won't have Linus or Alan or thousands others
forever (what a sad life without them). We need to plant the seed for the
new generations to come.

By giving users a free High Quality OS, and free Internet access, don't you
think that someday they will want to give something back to the community?
That's how Linux works: we all are
trying to give something back to the community. Those of you reading these
lines, aren't you trying the same everyday? That's why we have copy parties,
mailing lists, newsgroups, etc.
We are a gift community and a bazaar community.

BTW, what do you think about a compile farm? That way development process
will be faster.

*Provide our community with a unified local repository of software: faster
downloads: in many countries there are not unified national backbones.
Academical networks and
commercial ones have not a common backbone, or are in the process of doing
so. Around the world we have hundreds of mirrors of Linux repositories, but
when it comes to a single country,
maybe the user and the mirror and in different networks, thus having slow
downloads, although the mirror is in the same country. I don't pretend to
abolish existing mirrors, but to provide
by the zero-cost ISP project a nation-wide ISP with all the necessary Linux
resources. People won't _have_ to use it, it's just a choice, and a fast
choice. The 0800-Linux ISP must be
nationwide to achieve this goal. Besides, the PPP link can be established
with extra compression (not just IP headers), thus giving a phenomenal
throughoutput. And let's add to this the
chance to have two phone links using Serial Load Balance (an option in the
kernel). Should this ISP include ISDN/xDSL service? In the beginning maybe
not, due to increased costs, but
it's just a matter of counting the demand for it. It's another issue to
discuss in this project.

*Give privacy to people: what is your ISP doing with your data? And your
mail? Do you think your actual ISP protects your privacy? I don't know for
sure, but I don't think so. Have you
ever heard of the Echelon Project? "The big brother is watching you",
remember? The 0800-Linux ISP project can help us reach a decent level of
privacy. How? With encrypted PPP links,
educating our users to use PGP, giving free web mail a la hushmail.com .
It's a very simple way to encourage users to user strong encryption. Which
well-known free web mail server
provides users with strong encryption? Remember what happened in Hotmail
some time ago, when crackers published techniques/programs to read any
account's mail? If we support strong
encryption this can't happen again. (help me find links, please)

I also think of, let's say, an encrypted /home file system. We can think
endlessly of new applications.

Well, let's not forget all this is subject to government permission. There
are new project laws in UK that will consider illegal to provide decryption
keys to the government, for example.
(Anyone with links? Thanks)

*Open new business opportunities: with a large user base it's impossible not
to mention the new (now not so new) and huge market it will bring. Books,
Commercial Software (while we
don't have free replacements we have to buy them. Think about games), more
Distributions sales, support companies, huge demands for Linux-inside PCs,
etc.; everything will grow,
exponentially, and even unthinkable new businesses. We are in a new
e-conomic era, and Linux is one of the driving forces on it. Look at the
success of Linux IPOs. And we are a minority!
We just have to pull the trigger. The results will overwhelm us.

*Fill the demands in the IT world: lots of nations are now making plans to
fill the huge demand for IT professionals. Countries like Belgium,
Switzerland, Spain, the US (if you know of
a real case for a country, please, submit links to my e-mail address) and
others, are worried about the lack of human resources they have in
Information Technology. They are even
encouraging students to choose Computer Science as their carrers. I once saw
a history in slashdot about it. Please, don't accuse me of being lazy, I
know I have to STFW; I just want this
paper to reach the web and the mailing list as soon as possible to begin the
discussion and the brainstorms. This is version 0.0.1 of this document, so
please, don't flame me.

*Allow more nations to involve/profit of e-commerce: most of European
nations are worried about the advantage the US has taken in e-commerce. And
in the end, the final customer is the
one who benefits from competition. But to fill the gap they need the human
resources to build and support the infrastructure. In Spain, for instance,
there are now Venture Capitals (private or
government funded, I don't know. Please, point me to more info. I saw this
news in TV, and don't remember all the details) specialized in new Internet
ideas. No one knows what is going to
be the next boom, so they better invest in new no-matter-how-weird projects.
I know the European Union has acknowledged the gap, and they don't want,
they can't, be out of the game.

Creating a zero-cost LINUX ISP

So if a zero-cost Linux ISP can benefit the Linux community, how can we
raise the funds to achieve it?

*Existing Linux/Open Source funds: the Open Source Equipment Exchange
(http://osee.bascom.org) and the Linux Fund (http://www.linuxfund.org) and
others (if you know some link,
please send feedback)

*Linux distributors: if we get this project to work, it is certain that the
companies behind the Linux distributions are going to benefit. Nowadays, you
can see boxed Linux distributions in
well known stores around Europe and South America, whereas just one and a
half year ago you couldn't. Now it's easy to find bright and shiny boxes of
SuSE, RedHat and Mandrake, to
name a few.

The main Linux distributions have showed along all these years a firm and
sincere support for a vast range of projects. And they know their success
depends on the user base. We just have to
develop a strong project and they surely are going to help.

*Linux Publishers: lots of publishing houses are having a business around
Linux these days. It's everytime more common to see new Linux books in the
shelves at major bookstores. If
they donate a little fraction for the sale of each book to the project, then
we have more funds. We just have to get more people into the community, and
books are going to start to fly away
from the shelves. It's inevitable. Houses la O'reilly are well known for its
support and sponsorship of projects.

*Other UN*X companies: why did SUN gave StarOffice away for free? If the
Linux community succeeds, Un*x will get exposed to the general public and
corporations. It will strengthen
Un*x acceptance. Un*x vendors will keep alive in the game. Even SGI, which
is now embracing Linux instead of IRIX, will win because hardware sales make
more sense to them. If Linux
in general has support from this companies, the 0800-LINUX project benefits
indirectly from that support. Now we have a High Quality Office Suite free
to offer to the public, thanks to SUN.
Maybe we can become a Sunsite partner, thus receiving hardware from the very
SUN.

*Hardware Integrators: if you sell a computer with free Internet access when
you buy it, with no more headaches to the end user to set it up, just
dialing 0800-LINUX, hey, it's a hell of a
good strategy. And if you save users the cost of the OS, prices are going to
be even more attractive. Hardware integrators can supply a machine with a
free OS, free applications, free Office
suite, and FREE Internet access...

Again, the more users we attract, the more hardware gets sold. V.A. Systems,
Penguin Computing, Compaq, Dell, to name just a few, all of them are in the
game. They are just waiting,
_waiting_, for demand to supply Linux already installed. They are tired to
pay the M$ tax. They can instead, save that money and support this project
with just a fraction of that. Whether
it's hardware or money, we'll benefit.

*The government: in high developed countries kids have computers at school.
They develop their understanding and attraction to computers from early
ages. Until now, the beginning of
the 21st century, all the countries had access to the same kind of
technology and education. Technology was easy and cheap to replicate in
every country, even the poorest. And education
more or less the same everywhere, with no specialization, or a low tech one.
Every country has had, more or less, the same opportunities to develop
themselves. Now we enter a new era.
The gap between developed nations and developing ones, is everyday larger.
It's technology, services, specialization, high tech industries, education
and the Internet the turning points in this
new era. And I'm not saying anything new. The more people with access to
technology, information, services, and communications the wealthier the
country becomes. And more developed,
in general terms. Where do you think is Linus from? Finland; Cox? UK;
Stallman? US. I know you see the path.

As a non-profit project, the zero-cost Linux ISP, the government can concede
tax-deductions to the funds private companies and/or individuals give to the
project. Even the same government
could help fund the project, due to the importance of the results. It's not
just Linux, it's the enlightening of the population by means of Linux, and
the long run results it is going to bring.

*United Nations: (please help me on this)

*End Users donations: we can't impose our users to pay a fee for the
Internet access; if we do, we'll just become YAISP (Yet Another ISP), and
will add another level of complexity to the
project (manage subscriptions, payment, etc.). Besides, the goal in our
project is to provide an easy way for users to setup their Internet access:
they just dial 0800-LINUX after installing
Linux or buying a brand new computer. Even the distributions can have a
pre-setup out of the box with a list of countries were the 0800-LINUX
project is working. So users just will be one
click away the 'Net. In this project we have to develop all the policies and
framework of the ISP, so it will be the same all around the world.
Distributions can ship already set-up.

Therefore, when users want to give back to the community, they just can
donate hardware and/or funds to the project. Just with a tiny fraction of
what they pay annually to their respective
ISPs and/or Phone MonopoLIES it will be enough.



Moving Forward

If you agree that a zero-cost Linux-only ISP can be beneficial for the
growth of Linux, how do we as a community go about addressing the points I
made above about creating such a project?
I think that as a first step we should create a mailing-list and run a poll
to know the percentage of the Linux users in our country use dial-up
Internet access.

Is a Linux-only free ISP project even possible? The first thing one could
think when reading about this project is that it is going to cost too much
money. OK. You have a point. But think
it this way: if we raise the necessary money to have a 0800-LINUX ISP in our
country, do you think it is worth it? We have plenty of choices, and
reasons, to find funds.

We have to find all these answers together. This is a project that must be
born inside the community, not imposed from the outside. After we find
consensus, we must prepare a complete
proposal to all the Linux related companies, to know how much funding we can
get.

And for the technical details of the ISP we could create an "Engineering
Task Force". Please, email me at cbetan@unet.edu.ve if you believe in the
plausibility of this project and would like
to participate.












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