Re: [Trisquel-users] How beginner firendly is Trisquel? (Driver support)

[chris]

There is a pretty decent chance you'll run into problems with your wifi  
and/or graphics even if it works in Ubuntu/Linux OS. The reason for this is  
Trisquel includes only 100% free software (where the code is available in  
simple terms) whereas Ubuntu, Linux OS, etc include some non-free software.  
That non-free software can be really problematic in the long run. For example  
there are components that you risk losing support for. If you know those  
components aren't free and then choose not to use them you won't become  
reliant on them- nor will they cause trouble down the road for you. Usually  
people run into trouble upgrading distributions because some component is no  
longer supported by the company releasing that component (be it something  
like Adobe Flash, Adobe Reader, Oracle Java, or a driver/firmware component  
for a piece of hardware).

Many people do resolve these issues by replacing these non-free components  
with free ones. However it does take a bit more work and sometimes it can be  
difficult / or annoying due to digital restrictions. For example you might  
not be able to replace the wifi card in your computer because of the digital  
restrictions on some computers. You can usually switch to using a USB wifi  
adapter instead, but of course, it's less convenient. Tis is the price of  
freedom though.