On 23Oct2006 13:13, Attila The Hun <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: | Here is a short version of my "story": | Sixty six year old male Microsoft user since 1985. Retired at the end of | 2005. Time on my hands..... | | I have a Dell Deminsion 9100 desktop, and an old Compaq Armada 7400 | laptop. Both computers are partitioned to run Windows, or Linux. | | I have (mostly) settled on Fedora Core 5 for the desktop, but haven't | found a distro that fully works on the laptop. I have tried several | distros (26 in fact), and *none* have picked up the laptop soundcard. | Only one picked up the wireless card, and another was able to use | wireless, after a little work. | | My conclusion is that Linux is fun to play with, but isn't quite ready for | Windows users. The distros are more suited for desktops, but older | laptops should stick with Windows.
Yeah - this is a fairly standard difficulty. Most manufacturers don't document how their devices work, and distribute binary (no source) drivers for the various platforms (where various usually means "windows"). So Linux driver support depends on some talented hacker who cares figuring out how the device works and writing a driver. It's not that microsoft do some kind of brilliant job on the driver front; the official drivers come from the vendors, who could often only be bothered with one platform:-( Personally I would often be happy to have a machine with a nonworking soundcard - more so since the last time some banner ad played the crazy frog song unasked:-) So yes, you generally have to be a little careful about driver support, and laptops are generally worse than desktops because they seem to get all manner of special or obscure devices in them... Of course this is rather off topic for the original subject, being browser plugins being present out of the box. Cheers, -- Cameron Simpson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> DoD#743 http://www.cskk.ezoshosting.com/cs/ But in our enthusiasm, we could not resist a radical overhaul of the system, in which all of its major weaknesses have been exposed, analyzed, and replaced with new weaknesses. - Bruce Leverett 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/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LINUX_Newbies/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> 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/
