I gave up on Linux in 2009: wasted far too much of my life trying to get far too many simple things to work. Initially I liked the learning, but after 3 years I said F this and moved on to Win 7.
As it happens I just resurrected a Presario 2100 for a friend's kid with bits and pieces from the local council e-waste dumpsters:
Upped the ram to 1 gig,
found a 160 gig hard drive 7200 rpm amongst the rubble,
added a wireless card form another dead laptop,
it had a Win XP Home license so I just used my copy of XP Home SP3, everyhting but the ATI display driver worked, 5 minutes on HP's website and I had the ATI driver installed
found some Win Media player codes to enable DVD playback
installed PC Tools Free antivirus.
2 hours of my time and everything works
Can't see myself installing Linux again TBH.
It really makes my heart sink when i read things like your post.
Linux has come a long way in the past few years. For the record I gave up on windows ~2001 why ? at the time it felt more like amigaOS than windows , having a proper command line and a great community of developers. Open Source (in my mind) was very much like the PD community i loved on the amiga. My understanding of Open Source, the ethical and political implications of it have long since changed now as i understand it more!
I've been using Linux day to day. When i purchase a new computer / hardware - I ALWAYS ensure that the hardware I buy is supported by linux - that goes for laptops. USB devices , printers etc. Since i took that small effort to be careful I have found that Linux "just works(tm)". I put the install media in and 10mins later i have everything working . I dont really need Antivirus , and i dont have to reformat and re-install every six months to keep things running smoothly.
I dont have to scour the net for outdated drivers or cranky 3rd party apps that dont work properly as everything is built right in to the linux kernel or userspace tools. Compare that to the brand new Mac Mini on my desk (currently switched off). I plug my USB MidiSport interface in and the mac wont recognise it - i would download drivers if i could but their are none that work with Mountain Lion.
Similar situation with a pro-end USB audio interface I have. Dont even get me started on the USB keyboard and mouse. Its the same situation with windows although for the most parts its easier to find and download drivers. This dissappointed me about the Mac - i expected it to me more like linux in this regard. I've come to expect it of windows and nothing changes here in this regard.
Two points
1) dont purchase hardware for any operating system without checking its well supported first.
2) you stand a much better chance of having old hardware working on an open source operating system than a brand new one.
you wouldnt admit to buying software / hardware for other platforms without checking first would you?
Nick
