Well - here goes. I am a new Linux user who got really excited when I found out my ISP NEZERO now supports Linux. I never got too far with Linux before as I could never find a free ISP and it just wasnt worth it to pay for a new service.

Problem is that NETZERO is new to Linux support as well - they have a NETZERO.DEB file which you may download, and install. Thus with my netzero account, I can have it all - my multiple windows platforms as well as getting exposed to Linux - maybe even loose some of those older windows machines. But lets not get ahead of ourselves.

The downside - the Netzero.DEB files supposedly allows one to use LINDOWS. I dont want to use LINDOWS - $60.00 is unreasonable for what is supposed to be a free OS. Thus I was hoping to install it on Mandrake or another good LINUX distro. But Mandrake doesnt support DEB files natively. I tried unsucessfully to install DPKG and even ALIEN to convert to RPG but didnt work - just too much I dont know, I guess. Thats all in the hopes that the LINDOWS ulitlity will run on any othe Distro.

So thats where I am and thats what i am asking.

Has anyone had experience with getting NETZERO dialup working under any version of LINUX?

IF not - does anyone have foolproof directions on adding DEB support to Mandrake?

Does anyone recommend an alternate distro?

I could go on and on - I have Debian coming in the mail, Have Mandrake 9.2, Suse 8.2, Red Hat 9.0, Knoppix and am feeling rather overwhelmed - I simply want an install to get me online. For Free. Too much to ask???

I'm asking.

Debian natively supports DEB pkgs

For your other distros, you can dissect the deb with Alien.

Right, which is why I am getting it - gave up on trying to add pdkg and/ or Alien to mandrake, red hat or suse.

Trust me, its not for lack of trying - spent over a week on this and still cant get things to work.

My understanding is that Debian is not a "nice" (ie. new user friendly") distro as compared to say Mandrake and Suse (I havent yet expiened this yet however) so i would prefer gettin Alien and or dpkg to function, but have given up - dont know how/missing something, I dont know. Problem is the in for Alien to work, both RPM and DPKG must be installed and functioning properly, so the real prob seems to be getting dpkg to install and function properly. Though I gave that a heroic effort - I have given up. and am going to give debian a try. If that doesnt work, i will give up the idea that Linux is ready for prime-time.

have you tryed www.rpmfind.net

I find it dis-heartening that Netzero would put out it's service for paying members of Netzero only... then only support Lindows... and with .DEB files for that matter...

How about Mandrake, Suse, Redhat... blah blah blah...

Okay... now the question.

Has anyone got the Netzero.deb file to run under a RPM based distro... and for that matter not Lindows?

Update - Jan 31

well, I got in my 8 disk copy of Debian and have failed twice to get it installed - its a lot different than the other distro's - a lot harder to decipher the often vague "programmer speak" the install procedure uses. I can see the power behind it - but the terms they often use are vague and unclear. i think a third try might work - I seem to be having trouble getting the right partitions created and then then mounted properly.

Chalk it all up to a learning process - look at all I am learning (one learns from his mistakes, right - in which case, I am a genius).

I still feel this is a tantalizingly close project to work on - though as Karl has voiced - "I find it dis-heartening that Netzero would put out it's service for paying members of Netzero only... then only support Lindows" - well stated, hear,hear etc.

Once again, in as clear a query as I am capable of asking -

Has anyone any experience with Netzero and Linux?

I know it is your choice and all, but why not just use a regular ISP. http://650dialup.com/ is only 650 a month, unlimited, needs no software, etc. There are many others also. 650 is probably the best though.

Try to get a friend with linux to convert it. That is odd that they only have it in .deb format. Or just have a friend with linux expand it, then zip it up in a format you can use.

Netzero works fine on Mepis, a debian-based distro, which is free, unlike Lindows. I had the same problems with dpkg and alien, gave up and tried Mepis. I have had no problems for the past few weeks. Just make sure your modem has a driver, which I got from linmodems.org. It can be done, even by Newbies like ourselves. Good Luck.
Miles

MEPIS does NETZERO !!!

Much thanks to Miles - his suggestion to give MEPIS a try was right on. The distro comes with a little less than some of the others, but was the least painful debian install I came across.

Within an hour of recieving the CD's in the mail, I had my machine installed, Netzero installed and configured and was experiencing the joys of surfing the web with the same dialup ISP I use for my windows machines.

Though the suggestion to try 650dialup was also promising, I couldnt get a clear idea from thier website as to wether they do linux at all. I coulda called, but then, changing ISP's and email addresses is such a pain that I focused on the Debian based "free" distros at my disposal.

Bottom line - though NETZERO claims to work with LINDOWS only, it works fine with MEPIS and probably others. At least, that is with my $10/month NETZERO Platinum account. I havent tried the free Netzero level of service. That would really be cool - a free OS with free net access = free email for those who dont really need that much access to the web.

I have been looking for the netzero.deb for awhile now. Where can I get it at. I use Netzero on a laptop, that I would love to convert over to Linux. I am using Mepis and Libranet as my distros now.

Oh - Netzero wouldnt want to make it easy to use LINUX, Noooooo.....

They have it buried deep in their system. The way to get is to go to

www.netzero.com obviously, then click on the HELP tab at the top of the screen. This opens a help page - in the lower left is a pulldown to select your operating system. - Select LINDOWS then select the NETZERO icon in the upper left of the screen. Somehow these steps seem to set some register so the when you now select DOWNLOAD A COPY on the left of the screen, it present you with the LINUX download rather than the Windows one.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, I have it now. I would have never had figured that out!

After some tweaking I finally got netzero to work with mandrake 9.1 (technically it still doesn't work, but that's because I still have to find a driver for my modem). First, you have to get the contents out of netzero.deb. Use alien to convert it to an rpm, which shouldn't work. However, it does create a directory named '-' with everything in it. Just superimpose every directory in there onto the root directory except for 'root'. If you want a link to it take out the link named 'Netzero' from the root/Desktop directory and put it on your normal desktop. Once I find that driver I'll put up a tarball with the netzero files.
EDIT:
I forgot a step. You have to install the java VM if you don't already have it, then it should work. You can get it for linux here:
http://java.com/en/download/manual.jsp
Also note that kaffe doesn't work with the Netzero software.