As for proprietary winmodem drivers, there is nothing that Mageia could really do as drivers are normally not allowed to be distributed by third parties. But, like you mention, some softmodems are supported. I guess it all depends on how lucky/unlucky you are when you buy your desktop or laptop computer. On the positive side however, the trend for major computer builders this year is that they have been moving away from "windows" only modem/ethernet cards. They are including more OS inclusive hardware. Although, I believe that this has also a lot to do with the Kernel version used by Mageia as some of the OSS drivers are included in the kernel. So to re-cap this wish: -- Mageia should be a little more sensitive to users who have telephone hookups by providing and installing the tools right at the very first install. There should be no downloading of software at all if you are setting up a dial-up connection in the MCC (Mageia Control Centre) -- Mageia should also try to be sensitive to the telephone hook-ups by including the necessary tools for installing winmodems/softmodems. Cheers Marc
Can I put in a plea on behalf of users who can't even use a telephone hook-up because of the appalling phone connection, e.g. in a rural area through Telecom Italia, and are obliged to depend on a 'dongle'?
I found an installation procedure for my dongle freely available on the internet; it's not proprietary. In fact the Windows installation disk that comes with the dongle itself uses it. AFAICT it's the details of the dialer defaults, in particular the init strings, that would have to be sorted out for different broadband providers.
Doug
