Posted by: Anonymous
[ip: 71.181.226.153]
on May 18, 2008 04:11 AM
Linux on laptops "blows" for the reason that most hardware for laptops is either proprietary or just plain hard to come by. Ubuntu currently is and continues to make strides in this department when they joined up with Dell. Ubuntu 8.04 detected everything on my Dell XPS M1530 laptop, including the webcam, wireless, and bluetooth directly from the Live CD without ANY intervention on my part (other than adding in my WEP key). Drivers for Linux is by no means "Linux's problem", it's the problem of the vendors that only make drivers and programs for Windows.
As far as problems are concerned, my only problem is trying to figure out which distro is best for me because I usually do end up playing flavor of the week more often than I'd like. Ubuntu, openSUSE, Mandriva, Fedora, Arch, Sabayon, and Slackware are all distro's I have used or currently do use for any extended period of time (read: 1 year continuously or better) but, with maybe the exception of Slackware (as it's based philosophically on stability), each and every new release of any of the above-mentioned distro's gets better with each new release (although some may argue that point in the case of Fedora and maybe even Mandriva). To those of those who need Windows, with VMware Server being free on both the Windows and Linux platform (or even VirtualBox, Qemu, Xen, etc.), I think it's best to run Windows as a guest OS running from a Linux box.
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It's time to retire "ready for the desktop"
Posted by: Anonymous [ip: 71.181.226.153] on May 18, 2008 04:11 AMAs far as problems are concerned, my only problem is trying to figure out which distro is best for me because I usually do end up playing flavor of the week more often than I'd like. Ubuntu, openSUSE, Mandriva, Fedora, Arch, Sabayon, and Slackware are all distro's I have used or currently do use for any extended period of time (read: 1 year continuously or better) but, with maybe the exception of Slackware (as it's based philosophically on stability), each and every new release of any of the above-mentioned distro's gets better with each new release (although some may argue that point in the case of Fedora and maybe even Mandriva). To those of those who need Windows, with VMware Server being free on both the Windows and Linux platform (or even VirtualBox, Qemu, Xen, etc.), I think it's best to run Windows as a guest OS running from a Linux box.
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