Linux is simply not ready for prime time. I have thoroughly tested 14 different distros over the last 4 months and they have an enormous task ahead of them – especially when it comes to wireless networks and printers. Of the 14 I’ve tried as LiveCD or LiveUSB’s (created with that great program Unebootin for Windows) only 7 had any auto-detection capability and GUI for hooking to wireless broadcasting networks. Out of those 7 NONE could see or connect to a wireless printer on my network. NOT ONE! And to make matters worse their Print Mangers were so difficult to comprehend that no newcomer would stand a chance.

Linux is still far too geeky for the average PC user to even consider – especially if you need wireless networks and wireless devices. They are still 5 years behind Vista and Windows 7 beta (I test it too) and unless they can find a quick way to make wireless printing and scanning a top priority, they will remain with less than 0.7% of the PC market share and lose all of the PC users in the growing wireless market.

Too bad but it’s their own fault. Too many distros, too much developer ego in the various communities, too much focus on fat and eye-candy like dancing screens and warping menus, and not near enough focus on meat and potato issues like basic wireless connectivity. Get your act together people! Stop congratulating yourselves, you are seriously losing the race and face utter extinction in the next 5 years. Linux must try and find a way – as in VirtualBox – to let the Windows OS do the ploughwork of wireless connectivity because 1) they are excellent at this and 2) will continue to ship with virtually every new PC. But here is an opportunity for Linux – if it is bold enough to recognize it – it can be developed to ‘piggyback’ onto the work Windows does in connectivity and ‘graft’ itself into the underlying software and drivers that the primary Windows OS uses to communicate with essential wireless devices like 3-in-1 wifi printers. All the idealism about free and open-source is just an expensive illusion if the distro vanishes from lack of support – and it will get next to no one if things do not change rapidly.

Before you consider installing ANY LINUX brand, do all the research you can on the downside of the installation and you wilI find thousands of very disgruntled ex-Linux officianados. Learn all you can and print out all you can about uninstalling the Linux brand you are favouring. Many are extremely difficult to get rid of and unless you are very good at using your Windows Install DVDs in repair or restore mode, you may regret the day you ever installed Linux as repairing XP or Vista’s master boot record (and getting rid of Linux’ Grub Loader) is not like de-installing a program. Even if you install one of the better Debian packages like Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu from within XP or Vista, it cannot be uninstalled completely as it will forever linger on your multi-boot window until you learn to repair the Windows MBR
In closing, I spent over three decades with IBM back when we developed DOS and threw it away on Gates. If Linux expects to grow, it has to first ‘grow up’ and stop feeling smug satisfaction at its poor market showing. Free is only good if its useful. If its not its just trash to be discarded. I discarded openSUSE for that reason.
JJCB.
I can be reached at jjcb@shaw.ca

i am d.kelly
from qembedded64 systems
msdn,technet and linux support specialist

First, I could not configure kppp to dial my CDMA internet connection so had to use wvdial. wvdial connected but cud not get DNS. This was solved when I disabled onboard lan. Later I figured the YaST Netwoking and enabled to dial connection from right in there and currently posting this with the connection. However, I don’t know what will happen when I restart.

Also, I had problem configuring the display. My monitor was not detected and had a frequency overrange after I restart after installation. I tried editing the xorg.conf but did not help. Finally, I cud get my system running only after I copied the xorg.conf.install over xorg.conf and later configured the refresh rates.

Package management is quite poor as compared to Ubuntu. Searching and installing codecs is also not that great.

The only other problem I’ve had is with audio. I had installed Amarok instead of Banshee. The gstreamer/yuaup engine filled the music with static, but the xine engine is static free.

Overall, I’m happy with 11.1.

ASUS M3A79-T Deluxe
AMD Phenom II X4 3.0GHz
ATI Radeon HD 4870
4GB RAM

You might try going back a little and trying OpenSuse 10.3 or 11.0. I found these to work flawlessly.

Wanting to try KDE, I next tried Mandriva 2009. Everything worked excellently except video. Very cool looking distribution, though Dolpin is hard to get to. After the first update, With my very new highend ATI board, I could only boot in safe mode after issueing a strange command preventing any 3d. Apparently there is an incompatibility in 11x and ati in KDE, though they work together in Ubuntu on another drive on the same computer. Frustrated, I tried the new Fedora KDE. It already seems to have 11x, and it, like Mandrivia stopped with a black screen crash, but during the installation.

What I cannot understand is why video is fine in Suse 11.1, but sound does not work when it is just the reverse in Fedora and Mandriva. I have extensively searched for solutions, and found none that work. I would love to be using one of these 3 distributions, but am stuck. It seems that Suse is the best possibility, because even without sound, you can still get into the os and work on configurations, something you cannot do with a black screen video related crash.