[Nottingham] Buying broadband and computers - who is best out there?

[jdel]

Hello NLUG,

I'm getting a grant for a project I'm working on next month and I'll be getting broadband (for a year if I have to) but I'd like to know who provides the most reliable, fastest installed, and best supported service in Nottingham.  I don't have a POTS line, but would get one if necessary.  In NYC I had cable, but I'd rather go with a DSL line here.  I'm not sure if they even provide broadband over the television cable networks here.  

I used to use a company called PANIX for work in NYC that provided my DSL.  Public Access *Nix, because they were a smaller company and I had the number of a PERSON when I wanted help setting up a backup MX or whatever.  Also, I recall using an ISP that gave out a free Solaris shell when you subscribed to a dialup account, so any perks like that would be a plus.  

Finally, I'm also on the market for two Laptops.  Can anyone recommend a shop that does good value and might work me out a deal for a couple of P4 3Ghz? 

Of course, when I get these new toys I'll be wanting a distro.  I used to use slackware but it's been a few years and I'm willing to try something else.  I'm kind of biased against RedHat and I don't really like the .rpm system.  It's a bit presumptuous, or at least I used to feel that way.  Can anyone recommend and/or get me a copy of a good distro that doesn't try to do too much automagically?

Thanks,

Joshua

		
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