Email and telephone support for  Red Hat or Pink Tie Linux 9 service


Should you choose to run Linux as your main operating system then a subscription to Club Cycom will entitle you to a reasonable level of telephone and email support for all things Linux.

A modern Linux such as Red Hat or Pink Tie 9 will provide you with a reliable computing environment and a host of applications
that is not developed by nor licensed from Microsoft.
The most noticeble effect of this is that you become "different" to the masses and this bring advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages

  1. Immunity to all the Microsoft specific viruses that are floating about.
  2. Office applications are free.
  3. Most other applications are free.
  4. Most applications support open standards (protocols and file formats).
  5. You indirectly support open standards by providing a critical mass of users.
  6. Your support for open computing standards helps developing countries and ultimately ends world hunger and wars!
  7. You signal to Microsoft that releasing unsafe products can affect its revenues and desktop monopoly position.

Disadvantages

  1. Many ISPs and web sites do not "support" connections or web browsers that run on Linux and effectively this means that they do not support open standards which are essential for the health of the internet.
  2. You will not be able to get free knowledgeable technical support from your usual friends.
  3. You will not be able to play the latest commercial PC games or use most commercial software.
The disadvantage 1 is overcome by switching ISP or online bank to other companies that do support open standards.
Disadvantage 2 is overcome by subscribing to Club Cycom!
Disadvantage 3 is overcome by switching to free games and software or by maintaining a dual boot computer that can run Windows or Linux depending on a menu selection during startup.