If you have any nVidia vido card, the 3D graphics is disabled until you download new drivers. This is not SuSE's fault, or even Linux - it's nVidia's own driver policy. As for CD burners, they usually simply need to be enabled. Most of us out here are burning CDs just fine under Linux. It has been my experience that SuSE Linux has the best hardware detection and driver installation system in the Linux world, and has been that way for some time.
Of course, you can always go back to that shrink wrapped virus, otherwise known as Windows. Having all the device drivers in the world don't mean a thing when you've got 18 tons of viruses and spyware all over your system that seem to successfully evade and even disable every antivirus product on the market. Bear in mind you pay through the nose for all of this - compare this to what you get in the SuSE Linux box for mere pennies, and that's if you didn't download it for free. And then there's all those security problems... Given these choices, I personally gladly put up with having to learn something new once in a while. And contrary to popular myth, Linux makes an excellent desktop OS, it's just that people expect another Windows, which it isn't. If you want something different, you usually have to learn something different. But alas, every new version of Microsoft operating systems are migrating towards the Unix base, just like Apple did with the Mac. Microsoft calls it "Active Directory" - the rest of us call it UNIX DNS. Microsoft's latest OS, Server 2003, doesn't even do NetBIOS anymore - it is now 100% DNS only. And Microsoft has now released Windows Services for UNIX, allowing Unix software to run under Windows. In a nutshell: Microsoft is in the process of saying "uncle". Bob -----Original Message----- From: Wyatt M. Portendt [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, September 15, 2004 10:20 PM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [LINUX_Newbies] SuSe 9.1 Aaaaaarrrrgh!! I *really* like the looks of what this OS *could* do. I'm sorry, though, it lacks one Windows feature that I really miss right now. Hardware detection and configuration is killing Linux. I can't get sound. I can't get 3D acceleration or any of the features of my video card. My DVD+RW doesn't work. My DVD ROM works, but there's no sound, so, who cares? Thank God I don't have a printer or a modem. Windows guesses at hardware lots of times, but at least it *will* find it and try to make it work (enough to at least know that there's *something* there) - even if it isn't quite right. There is always the option of trying new drivers - fully available with a simple download and click to install - without recompiling the code and searching for arcane dependency files that must match the particular version of fifty different modules that must match the kernel you are using. You can't even click the "about" tab of the help to see which version of the program you actually have! The mail and internet programs have been challenging, but very do-able. It's the best internet suite I've ever used. I could live with keeping my games on Windows and everything else on Linux. I don't mind using the command line. But, JEEZE! Can't we just try to make the hardware work and make the tweaking a little less obscure?? I am not opposed to, or afraid of, digging into the bowels of my computer to make it better or faster. Having to just spend days trying to make it work before I get there is asking a lot. I am all for open source and all for the capabilities and possibilities of Linux. However, how are we ever going to get people excited and interested if their very first experience with it is a long and tedious battle just to get it to do *anything* right?? My first three experiences with Linux reminds me of the early days of DOS - spending hours at the command line, switching jumpers, re- installing and cursing for days at a time just to get one piece of hardware to work. It didn't have to even work well. After a few hours (or days), just working was good. We should be advancing, not going backwards. /rant off Once my veins contract and I lose the urge to kill, I'll go into Windows and get a list of my hardware, hoping that some kind soul whom I've not pissed off by my rant can help me make my Linux work. At this point I really only need it to work okay. Having it work as well as it does in XP seems to be too much of a stretch right now. Thanks for listening. I'll go to bed now. WMP To unsubscribe from this list, please email [EMAIL PROTECTED] & you will be removed. Yahoo! Groups Links ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/0XFolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> To unsubscribe from this list, please email [EMAIL PROTECTED] & you will be removed. Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
