What linux do you recommend?

dagcrack · Post by **dagcrack** » Mon May 15, 2006 8:09 pm

"You cant expect that to work!"

? What a bunch of .%#&..!!

Nik · Post by **Nik** » Mon May 15, 2006 8:15 pm

Well I think they are working hard on getting everything to work just look at their hardware compatability list, some things are hard though and they are even harder if you can't just phone the manufacturer and you get a free unit as Microsoft can.
And some advertising is needed personally I think there ist still not enough of it in the Linux community to make it look professional. ^^

dracflamloc · Post by **dracflamloc** » Mon May 15, 2006 8:41 pm

But you CANT expect it to work. Many of the wireless companies refuse to release drivers for thier cards and as such most drivers for wireless NICs in linux must be reverse engineered which is a long and tedious process that few are able to do well.

Broadcom for example has effectively stuck its middle finger up to the linux community, as well as many others who decide to release totally different chips in the same model NIC, making it very hard to categorize and effectively provide support without long serial number lists and manufacturing dates.

Don't blame linux, blame the jerkwad companies that won't support it with a driver that would probably take minimal time to write since they have all the hardware specs. If you're annoyed a card doesn't work in linux don't complain about the OS, complain to the company that makes the card. They underestimate the demand linux is getting these days and thus do not think it will benefit them to support it.

Trond · Post by **Trond** » Mon May 15, 2006 8:47 pm

dagcrack wrote:"You cant expect that to work!" ? What a bunch of .%#&..!!

dracflamloc wrote:But you CANT expect it to work.

What did I say, dagcrack?

dracflamloc wrote:Many of the wireless companies refuse to release drivers for thier cards and as such most drivers for wireless NICs in linux must be reverse engineered which is a long and tedious process that few are able to do well.

Broadcom for example has effectively stuck its middle finger up to the linux community, as well as many others who decide to release totally different chips in the same model NIC, making it very hard to categorize and effectively provide support without long serial number lists and manufacturing dates.

Don't blame linux, blame the jerkwad companies that won't support it with a driver that would probably take minimal time to write since they have all the hardware specs. If you're annoyed a card doesn't work in linux don't complain about the OS, complain to the company that makes the card. They underestimate the demand linux is getting these days and thus do not think it will benefit them to support it.

I'm not blaming Linux for the lack of wireless support, I'm just blaming the ones who are giving the impression that such things works out of the box (or with tons of configuration) when they actually don't period. Most often those same people don't know how to get it to work. They were simply lucky with their hardware and think everyone else is totally stupid and didn't read the manual.

I hate Ubuntu because of all the speak about "it just works", "humanity to others" and "does an outstanding job compared to Windows XP" (Yes, that's an actual quote, and yes it's about hardware support(!)) when it's not true.
I've never heard that Zenwalk works at all. It is not better than Ubuntu, but it keeps what it promises!

Nik · Post by **Nik** » Mon May 15, 2006 9:27 pm

Hmm, well you know how advertising works^^ on the other hand Ubuntu is one of the distros which provides a compatability list so you can check, you can't expect them to shout out what doesn't work on their main page.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport

It's also very important to know that in Ubuntu the Wiki is generaly the place to find answers to problems, and to find howtos

Joakim Christiansen · Post by **Joakim Christiansen** » Mon May 15, 2006 9:39 pm

Num3 wrote:I use Fedora Core 5 ...

I tried it, but it was just too advanced...
I worked hard to set it up and everything and when I got it working I just uninstalled it

thefool · Post by **thefool** » Mon May 15, 2006 9:53 pm

Whatever i stick my ubuntu 5.10 live edition up in, it works

(using a x64bit at my workstation, and it goes just fine.)

Of course i would like a permanent linux, but im just hopping around clicking the menu's and entering random commands now and then

BUT i havent tried it at our laptops yet, where the wireless parts come up..
Anyway i gotta find a way to get CoLinux working so i can save my things too

Inf0Byt3 · Post by **Inf0Byt3** » Mon May 15, 2006 10:50 pm

I personally use Mandriva2006. It looks pretty cool and stable. In fact this is the first post I make from Linux wich supports MPPE and VPN connections. For me, Mandriva's the one. I found features insine no other disto has. Too bad it's not debian based

.

Post by **Dare2** » Tue May 16, 2006 5:55 am

hehe,

Windows doesn't need to fear linux because there isn't a linux.

Wonders (again) why linux gets such good press and Gnu Unix is never mentioned.

lexvictory · Post by **lexvictory** » Tue May 16, 2006 6:23 am

ive used fedora 2,4 and am about to try 5.
most of the ones ive tried seem to be pretty easy, although ive never used PB on fedora.... only got it working on Knoppix....

When looking for a distro, u need to experiment with some of them, find which one YOU like,
becuase many flame wars could be started with things like "this one is better because of x"......

thats just my opinion.... (and i use mostly windows anyway

)

Trond · Post by **Trond** » Tue May 16, 2006 12:08 pm

Nik wrote:Hmm, well you know how advertising works^^ on the other hand Ubuntu is one of the distros which provides a compatability list so you can check, you can't expect them to shout out what doesn't work on their main page.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport

It's also very important to know that in Ubuntu the Wiki is generaly the place to find answers to problems, and to find howtos

Did you read what I said.
I. Have. A. Wireless. Networking. Card. With. A. Supported. Chipset.
I. Have. Read. The. Wiki.
I. Have. Done. Everything. As. Described. In. The. Wiki.
I. Have. Followed. The. Toubleshooting. From. The. Wiki.
I. Have. Asked. At. The. Forums.
It. Does. Not. Work.

dracflamloc · Post by **dracflamloc** » Tue May 16, 2006 12:34 pm

Dare2 wrote:hehe,

Windows doesn't need to fear linux because there isn't a linux.

Wonders (again) why linux gets such good press and Gnu Unix is never mentioned.

Typically because theres even less hardware support.

Nik · Post by **Nik** » Tue May 16, 2006 12:51 pm

They have also been mentioend less because the Desktop Versions of BSD are just coming up recently and this is mentioned on most IT sites imho.
Well Trond, sorry I overread this, I'm sorry for you, Can't help you though since this is a really difficult field most often it's just works or works not, so you are either lucky like me or not.

Post by **Dare2** » Tue May 16, 2006 7:44 pm

dracflamloc wrote:
Dare2 wrote:hehe,

Windows doesn't need to fear linux because there isn't a linux.

Wonders (again) why linux gets such good press and Gnu Unix is never mentioned.
Typically because theres even less hardware support.

Hi dracflamloc,

Do you mean that windows doesn't need to worry because linux has less hardware support, or that gnu unix has less than linux?

I'm guessing the the first (windows no worry) because Gnu Unix is the OS engine for linux, isn't it?

Trond · Post by **Trond** » Tue May 16, 2006 8:51 pm

There is no "Gnu Unix". There's GNU/Linux, GNU/Hurd, BSD Unix, Solaris and QNX.