Re: What's Wrong With LinuxMint ?

On 19/08/2026 14:23, Rich wrote:
> The Natural Philosopher <[email protected]> wrote:
>> On 19/08/2026 04:32, rbowman wrote:
>>> On Tue, 18 Aug 2026 22:16:09 -0400, c186282 wrote:
>>>
>>>>      Anyway, they took away my hardwire and gave me a 5G where the
>>>>      antenna is many miles away.  Weak signal almost always, perhaps
>>>>      packet errors too.
>>>
>>> I had a Verizon MiFi for years and it served me well but I think the
>>> closest tower is 6 miles away.  Youtube, streaming Netflix, and so
>>> forth wasn't a problem but I rarely saw 20 Mbis.  StarLink is a
>>> reliable 100 Mbis and makes the world of difference for updates,
>>> downloading isos, and so forth.  It's also $40 / month cheaper.
>>
>> You actually have starlink?
>>
>> Well I guess in rural USA fuck the rednecks is the average ISPs
>> response.
> 
> It very much is, just dressed up as "much too capital intensive for any
> reasonable ROI", but in the end the meaning is the same.
> 
> And it comes down to density.  Outside of the urban/surburban areas,
> the rural USA is *very* sparse.  The ISP might have to run eight miles
> (12.9km) of "cable" (be that fiber /or/ coax, whatever the link may be)
> before they reach the next, single, house to which they can sell an
> internet connection.
> 
> The monthly bill to repay the capital expense of hanging 12.9km of
> cable for "one house" would be such that no one would pay (or could
> afford to pay) the ISP bill.  So they simply don't wire up the rural
> areas.
> 
Which is an argument for some aspects of socialism. Socialise the cost.
The UK to an extent has done that allowing BT iopenreach to make 
reasonably obscene profits and I think get government grants to achieve 
'95% populations covered at 10Mbps or better'

Universal Service Obligation (USO) Rules

     The Right: Eligible homes and businesses can request a connection 
delivering a minimum download speed of 10 Mbps if their current speed 
falls below this.

Cost Cap: Openreach is required to build the connection unless the 
per-premises installation cost passes a statutory cap (currently set at 
£3,400). If it exceeds this cap, the customer or business can still fund 
the remaining balance to get connected.

New Builds: Recent building regulations mandate that all new home 
developments must include gigabit-ready physical telecoms infrastructure.

Essentially broadband is regadred here in te same way as roads - 
something that increaes the economic activity of the country and is 
therefore worth ensuring.

> Those same rural areas have electricity and POTS phone service (where
> it has not been retired) only because back in the 30's through 50's
> there were major government programs spending tax dollars to "wire up
> the USA" and so the capital cost of installing 12.9km of "wire" just to
> connect one home was borne by the govt., not the "ISP" (phone company
> or electric company back then).  When the service providers received
> the transport medium effectively free of capital expenditure they could
> then profit from their usual monthly fees, and were happy to oblige at
> that point.
> 
Yes. Something similar is arguably needed for broadband.

Actually stringing passive fibre is not that expensive in terms of the 
fibre, Its finding a safe place to string it.

In the UK its complicated by high population density and private and 
ownership: Most fibres have  to travel alongside roads - above or below.

> But with the internet, while there have been half hearted pushes to get
> the corporate ISP's to "wire up rural areas" with some token tax money
> offers, there has been nothing of the scale of the push from the 30's
> through 50's and so much of 'rural' America has no internet besides,
> maybe, dialup or satellite.
> 

Indeed. Its only when social mores decide that actually some form of 
socialised broadband and medical services are actually more a benefit to 
them than a cost, that stuff starts to happen.


-- 
"The great thing about Glasgow is that if there's a nuclear attack it'll 
look exactly the same afterwards."

Billy Connolly