David McNab ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> For instance, consider my existing hardware::
I know Rob's already responded, but I'd like to do so as well.
> * Alcatel DSL USB modem - major ordeal to get working - thankfully soon to
> exchange for Asus router
Westell WireSpeed external DSL modem - hooks to a standard CAT5 cable
on a standard 10baseT ethernet card. Works fine "in Linux".
> * Matrox Marvel G200 video edit card - only recognised as Millennium G200 -
> video capture and TV out capability is unavailable
ATI Rage IIc - works fine in both XFree86 3.3.6 (Mach64 X server) and
XFree86 4.x (ati driver).
Cirrus CL-GD5430 - works fine in XFree86 3.3.6, but I did have some trouble
getting it to run at the desired resolution in XFree86 4.x last time I
tried, which was many months ago.
I also had a Cirrus CL-GD5429 in my old '486 box, which worked fine with
whichever version of XFree86 3.x I had at the time.
> * Yamaha DX-SG sound card - the closest driver match produces garbled
> distorted sound
Creative SBLive! sound card - works fine with the emu10k1 driver, although
it's missing some features that I don't have the hardware to utilize anyway.
Creative SB ViBRA16X (ISA PnP) sound card - works fine with the sb driver
and the userspace isapnptools (for 2.2.x kernel). Haven't tested it with
the 2.4.x kernel built-in isapnp stuff.
> * Epson Stylus Color 760 printer - terribly underutilised in Linux - most
> print modes unavailable
No printer currently on Linux for me, thank $deity. Last time I printed on
Linux for personal use, I used an Epson dot matrix printer that I've had
since 1988. At work, I print from Linux all the time, but *nobody*'s using
parallel ports any more -- all the printers are network-based, with HP
JetDirect cards or some other print server. Linux does network printing
just fine.
> * HP 6350c scanner - might work when I take the time to figure out how to
> set up SANE. But I hold no hope for getting OCR software that works as well
> as the Windows apps.
I don't have a scanner.
> * 3Com Home Connect cyber cam - forget it
I don't have a camera.
> * On-Motherboard Athlon USB controller - unresolvable IRQ/DMA conflicts
I don't do USB, although one of my Linux computers actually does have a
USB port. I don't have any USB devices to connect to it, though.
> * HP 8250 CD Writer - I don't like my chances
I don't have a CD writer on Linux.
> In contrast, all this hardware was a total breeze to set up within Windows.
Where's your network cards? In my experience, certain network cards
are *much* easier to set up in Linux than they are in Windows 98. One
case in particular: an RTL 8029. Under Linux this uses the ne2k-pci
module, and works like a charm. Under Win98, I downloaded a driver from
the company's web page, installed it, and watched it fall flat on its
face. I spent *hours* trying to get it to work, and it never did.
I've got:
* an ISA NE2k clone (probably Linksys) - works fine with the "ne" driver
* two Tulip-based cards - these don't work with the vanilla 2.2.x kernel
"tulip" drivers, but they work great with the updated drivers from
www.scyld.com
* the aforementioned RTL 8029, which uses ne2k-pci
Oh, and all of my external serial modems have always worked great on Linux
(and every other OS). I'm glad I don't have to use dial-up Internet
access any more, though.
All of these work great in Linux, though I did have to spend some extra
time getting the Tulips up. For those keeping score at home, I've got
3 Linux boxes, 4 network cards (one of them is the Internet gateway,
so it has two). The gateway box doesn't run X, so I don't *care* about
its lousy SiS video card (which doesn't even have its own RAM). But
the important thing is that *every* single piece of hardware in these
computers works in Linux. And yes, most of this hardware is 3 or more
years old -- so what? That's *normal*. And yes, I don't have quite as
wide a range of toys as you -- but that's normal, too!
It seems to me that there are two fundamentally different approaches to
computing here -- the "Windows approach" (buy one very expensive computer
and hook up everything to it), and the "Unix approach" (buy several
cheap computers, at least one per user plus servers, and network them).
With my family of 4, there's often some contention -- I use the K6-2
Linux box, the kids use either the Athlon Win98 box or the P75 Linux box,
and my wife uses the Win98 box. The Celeron is the server. I couldn't
*imagine* how much fighting there'd be if I had only one computer.
--
Greg Wooledge | "Truth belongs to everybody."
[EMAIL PROTECTED] | - The Red Hot Chili Peppers
http://wooledge.org/~greg/ |
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