I have always found the greatest problem with Linux installs have always
been around the selection of hardware and hardware choices.
I know that sometimes, one modual will support different cards from the
same vendor, or, even from different vendors. If you are using a
particular
network card for example, and you do not know that tulip is the driver
needed,
you can spend hours trying to find out the appropriate modual to use.
I personally have a SMC card that does not use any of the SMC drivers,
it uses(used)
the epic100 driver.
Many times a user has no idea of what chipset is on the particular card
they have, but they do know the brand and product name.
If the configuration tools (netconfig for example) gave a breakdown of
manufactures/models vs a dropdown list of modual names, life would be
alot easier for those who are just starting out.
Although we all love to hate MS, their method of allowing the user to
choose a catagory, then a manufacturer from that catagory, then a
product name is a simpler method than what is currently available.
As for the autodetection routines, they are not the most reliable and
should have some way to directly select your choices without needing to
directly edit any files in /etc
One prime example of this is configuring multi-headed X configurations
without needing to edit the configuration files.
best regards
Dalton
