Hardware support (was: New midrange.com list: LinuxDesktop4i)

[David Gibbs <david@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Aaron Bartell wrote:
> It is because Dell Wireless chips aren't supported.

Well, the Dell wireless chips are Broadcom ... so why wouldn't they be supported?

Of course the REAL annoyance is the fact that Dell promotes Linux as a OS choice for many of their machines... some of which won't work 'out of the box'.

> It is things like that that cause people to drop Linux.  I don't
> blame you - it takes a bit to become a complete convert (i.e. use it
> as your primary environment).  But I am a believer that if you stick
> with it the benefits will slowly appear.  Similar to going from SEU
> to WDSC/RDi takes time to find *why* it is good.  Then after awhile
> you can't go back because it takes more work to be in Windows.

No doubt ... but this is the kind of thing that makes Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, or any distro) kind of unsuitable as a consumer desktop system.

Well, that and lack of consumer applications.

> Another thing that I REALLY like in Ubuntu is the regular OS upgrades
>  and how stinkin simple they are.  You don't have to wait years to
> get a next version like with Windows.

Well, be careful there ... I've had a number of Linux upgrades (mostly Fedora) that didn't go all that smoothly because software was updated to newer versions that did *NOT* support the previous versions configuration.

Damn I'm spoiled by IBM i.

The backwards compatibility we have grown used to is something others can't really comprehend (http://imho.midrange.com/2009/10/30/promoting-the-i/).

david