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A Guide to Trying Out Linux Distros

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Josh:
No, and there wont be until linux is as easy to install and use as windows. Thats what most techies dont understand. Linux is all well and good, its fast, stable, and powerful. However, the weakness it has is that windows has spoiled users and given them what they want. Something that JUST WORKS and doesnt require all this extra work to keep running. Until linux can achieve this, it will remain a niche product (much like opera)

Carol Haynes:
Linux is dead in the water until they get WiFi working properly (and encourage manufacturers to write proper drivers for printers and scanners).

I really want to like Linux but the only way I can use it is through VMWare - that is the only way I can get internet access.

Printer support is abysmal - if I buy a printer I want to use all the facilities it offers, not just basic printing. I have tried Linux with HP, Canon and Lexmark printers and none of them have been supported beyond basic printing (and even then it wasn't good quailty on my Canon). What about multiple paper sources, automatic duplex and CD/DVD printing etc.

As for scanners ...

f0dder:
Carol Haynes: all that trouble is because of the EVIL KAPITALISTIK MANUFACTURERS! though, and doesn't have anything to do with the reluctance to make a stable ABI and accept closed-source drivers.
* f0dder ducks and covers.

zridling:
Here's a better GNU/Linux start page.

Ubuntu's got WiFi going pretty well. As for internet access, I take you you don't have a high speed connection, Carol, is that why? And Josh, Apple uses that same argument to sell its computers — use our hardware, our software, our chips and it will all magically work. GNU/Linux is still in the tinkerer stage unless you sit down with a big distro like Ubuntu, PCLinuxOS, Fedora 7, or SLED (SuSe Linux Enterprise Desktop), the latter of which mimics Windows very well, but makes some stunning UI improvements, if you ask me.

Carol, I couldn't agree more about printers. You can download proprietary drivers through an easy link for many, many printers (at least 225 HP printers alone), but I also ran into the same problem when I upgraded to Vista and lost both my [new!] printer and older scanner. On the flip side, that same HP Laserjet 1020 printer will work under most GNU/Linux distros. As far as I can guess, HP just intends to mostly leave all but the color models unsupported for Vista and force everyone to buy new printers. That really pisses me off, because I live on a very tight budget and have to scrape together the money to buy hardware; it's never an impulse item. Hardware companies just don't see the need to write drivers for such a small [GNU/Linux] market... yet. Maybe soon. But if HP won't write drivers for Vista (which had a long, long beta period), then I'm not counting on it.

This is the biggest reason for all the LIVE CDs you see with almost every Linux distro; you can boot the CD and see how well all your hardware works with it. If not, try another distro or stay with Windows. Working to switch to GNU/Linux has made me appreciate some things I took for granted under Windows, but after using Windows since the 2.0 version (1987?), I've earned my chops and it's time to give another OS a try for a while.

Carol Haynes:
Carol Haynes: all that trouble is because of the EVIL KAPITALISTIK MANUFACTURERS! though, and doesn't have anything to do with the reluctance to make a stable ABI and accept closed-source drivers.
* f0dder ducks and covers.-f0dder (July 02, 2007, 05:48 AM)
--- End quote ---

LOL - Actually it is chicken and egg syndrome ... small Linux user base => not worth writing and supporting drivers.

Also the sheer number of distros makes support practically impossible - esp. as most Linux users expect everything for free.

When will we see 'Open Source Hardware' (ie. you just pay postage and get your hardware free too ;))

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