On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 18:22, Nick Rout wrote: > On Thu, 2005-07-14 at 18:12 +1200, Christopher Sawtell wrote: > > On Thu, 14 Jul 2005 14:28, Volker Kuhlmann wrote: > > > > 1. With a reasonably new machine, can there be issues with drivers > > > > being available for all the hardware? > > > > > > Yes. Losemodems are an eternal in the proverbial. > > > > Indeed, but thankfully less so than in times past. > > > > Get this file, decompress it and run the resulting script from a bash > > command line prompt. > > > > http://linmodems.technion.ac.il/packages/scanModem.gz > > > > It will tell you everything you need to know about your modem, and what > > driver to get. There are Linux drivers for all the major chipsets. > > an impractical suggestion for someone who is "in the process of buying" > a computer. No, I disagree. If a vendor is not prepared to let you boot the machine into Linux using either a live cd or a floppy and run a program to discover esxactly what mind of modem is installed, then frankly imho he deserves to lose the deal.
> > [ ... ] > > > > > > 2. I am sure there are many opinions on this, but a good Linux > > > > version to start with? > > > > > > Ooi, why don't you ask something non-controversial, like abortion or > > > Winston Peters or GST? > > > > > :-) > > > > imho, To start with anyway, Debian or preferably the Ubuntu derivative > > provided you can stand the aesthetics. Kubuntu otherwise. Mepis is good > > too. Gentoo later if you find want something more flexible. > > Avoid the .rpm distributions, with the possible exception of SuSe. > > your bias is showing. Indeed. .rpm is the format of choice for 'Corporate America', and being the bunch of legitimated thieves and vagabonds that they are, I'd suggest rather strongly that people should avoid them as much as possible. Political statement may be, but don't for one moment forget that the whole purpose of the American Cororation is solely to generate wealth for the shareholders. Everything they do must, by law, have that aim. So if it takes longer to get it right, than the budget allows. then stuff it, and let the customer find the bugs for us. Remember the 'Service Packs' so beloved by the 'other side'. > there is no substantial problem with rpm, > providing you put a more clever front end on it (apt, etcetc) And you do not mind having a severly attenuated choice of applications in the distribution. No MP3 player, no Video player except for the completely unencumbered formats. Poor to muddling QA offered by most distributions with the possible exception of SuSe - get in quick before Novell stuff it up. A recent survey, unfortunatly I can no longer remember the reference, discovered that the Community distributions were of a higher quality than the Corporate ones. -- CS
