Comments on: Major Aussie ISP Telstra BigPond shafts open source OpenOffice

By: wildpossum

wildpossum — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 01:05:59 +0000

Looks like Asterisk is also on their ban list, maybe it competes with their landlines?

This is an automated email from the BigPond Files Request System. Your file request (for the file at http://optusnet.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/asteriskathome/trixbox-2.4.0.iso, described as ‘Trixbox CE v2.4 ISO’) has been declined.

By: minkley

minkley — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 04:28:37 +0000

Telstra are tough tackle legally by any standards, because apparently, at any time, they engage Advocates from around 20 of top legal firms in NSW – which makes them unavailable to anyone who might want to litigate Telstra.

So you probably won’t find a decent lawyer to support you with any legal action against Telstra.

By: David Pastern

David Pastern — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 03:23:42 +0000

Well, that’s a good reason to switch from Bigpond isn’t it?

As to taking legal action against Telstra, if the ACCC is having problems legally with Telstra, then the ordinary person will as well I suspect ;-)

Better to vote with your feet and change ISPs.

This is what happens when you privatise a public utility – the same thing is now happening with the electrical energy providers.

You can thank Johnny “boy” Howard for this mess.

Dave

By: John

John — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 02:57:26 +0000

Rhys asked:

>will open office updates really take that much off your cap?

Well, yes, they will. An OOo upgrade is typically
about half a month’s quota (200 MB) for Bigpond’s
cheapest (and most popular) plan.

http://my.bigpond.com/internetplans/broadband/adsl/plansandoffers/default.jsp

It’s worse that they removed free anti-virus updates. They charge for their own anti-virus
service.

By: Ole Juul

Ole Juul — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 00:31:52 +0000

I’m very much pro open source, but I agree with Rhys, this is really a non-event and you can get Open Office anyway. BigPond may very well be an unsavory monopoly so there are no doubt much better things to complain about. This story is really grasping at straws.

By: Don

Don — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:01:27 +0000

Rhys, its the principle of the matter, and the fact that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Its about user choice, and fantastic customer service. ISPs should be in the business of providing what their clients require, not the other way around.

Infact, superior customer, service means tweaking your business to the needs of the client.

By: mikko

mikko — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 07:34:13 +0000

Telstra is taking great strides at becoming a very efficient and successful small buisness. open office is freely available all over the place anyway .just one more reason not to visit their pond

By: David

David — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:30:07 +0000

Just give ‘em a few more months…they’ll be like comcast. Preventing (some legit, some not) BitTorrent downloads, giving limited amounts of “unlimited bandwidth” and a few other “features” along the way.

By: Rhys

Rhys — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 04:58:43 +0000

I can’t believe that so much fuss is being made over a non-event.

will open office updates really take that much off your cap?

that Bigpond will host large files at all is a bonus – they don’t have to do it. And it is competing with their product, although there is a blurred line, you’ll find sme’s which Bigpond target probably won’t be able to tell where this line is. Not everyone is a geek.

This is not a slight against the open source movement – if it was then they would be hosting Microsoft Office downloads!

Bigpond is a business… deal with it.

By: David

David — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 03:18:19 +0000

it looks like they’ve made a deal with MS to provide a branded Office Like application. BigPond couldn’t have developed this, it was commissioned for sure.