As I mentioned awhile back, I am in the process of converting my home systems from the world of Windows to the world of Linux. I am doing so for three basic reasons:
a. I have always been interested in the concept of Linux.
b. I am trying to extend the life of systems that are basically three or four years old by improving the software performance vs. hardware limitations ratio, and
c. I have heard too many Vista horror stories to make me want to put that bloated mess of software onto my aging systems.
I say this without any personal animus towards Microsoft; I have been a Windows user since 3.1 back in the Intel 386 days (and a DOS user since 3.0) and am very comfortable in the Windows world. My day job involves working on computers and I will therefore probably be dealing with Messrs. Gates, Ballmer, et al. for the rest of my working life. But I've decided that it is time to learn something new.
Well, in my earlier efforts, I detailed how neither Fedora nor OpenSuse wanted to recognize my Acer laptop's built-in, accursed Broadcom B43 wireless card. My solution was eventually a hardware one; I went with a new network card which was reliably Linux-friendly (the Netgear WG511T PCMCIA card), and voila, it connected without a hitch. Well, with one hitch, which is that I cannot get encryption to work right. Given the range of my router, that doesn't particularly worry me, although I do want to sort that part out next (and I imagine when I do, one of my hippy neighbors will show up at my door and say ,"Dude, don't bogart* the wireless.").
But, it nagged me that I could not get the Broadcom to work for me. Like a splinter in my mind, as Morpheus might say. So I considered the words of one of my readers, who recommended Ubuntu. And so, I figured what the heck, I don't have anything of value on the laptop yet, so let's download a build of Ubuntu and give it a try.
The good thing about Linux is that it's free. Yes, you have to know where to look for the distributions, and yes, you need to have a software tool to burn ISO CD's. But with that, you can go burn a complete operating system for your PC for nothing. Not a dollar to Mr. Gates or a penny for the Illuminati. So, in that I tend in my initial GUI prejudices more toward the KDE side of the Linux house than the Gnome side of the house (not by much, granted, it's really flip a coin), I downloaded Kubuntu 8.04 and ran it. On install, it noticed my Broadcom card and told me I needed to get new firmware for it. Once I did so, it recognized it and now my laptop runs teh intraweb just fine.
I realize, of course, having reached the peak of this tiny little hill of knowledge, that had I understood that and properly executed the steps to fix that, my card quite likely have worked just as well under either Fedora or OpenSuse. But only Kubuntu pointed it out to me in terms I could readily understand. In other words, it was properly geared to my level of stupidity. To me, that suggests a level of sophistication in its design that recognizes the proper nature of our fallen world. Operating systems must ultimately condescend (in the proper sense of the word) to the stupid to be of use. Not, say, to the extent that Apple does, but you take my point (I kid, I kid).
On my laptop I am running Kubuntu. On my desktop I am running OpenSuse 10.3, which I am content with and which runs pretty cleanly there. On my mini-laptop (I own an Asus Eee, which is, without a doubt, the best small computer in the world for its price), I am running a build of Xandros which came with it.
So right now I'm letting the operating systems battle it out. The good thing is that like, say, creedal Christianity, all three of them are similar, and at the level of the kernel, are just about the same (I'm not positive I have the same Kernel release on all three, as I have done no updating to Xandros on my Asus Eee and my OpenSuse machine updates itself relentlessly. My next struggle with the Linux world will involve getting wireless encryption to run right and then getting my network printer to work. Once I have done that, I'll move on to other things.
Additional note: I'm not crazy about the default KDE Web Browser/File Management tool, Konqueror. To me, it is a file system that wants to be a web browser, or a browser that wants to be a file system, and to me, the two functions are fundamentally different. I am instead running Mozilla Firefox as my browser (though it does odd things to the text on some pages and I'm having to hit CTRL ++ or CTRL -- a lot), and am leaning toward the Kubuntu's file tool, Dolphin, for file management. Dolphin has one very useful little feature which is the "Open as Root" command, which in the world of Linux, is a very useful thing indeed. Maybe Konqueror has that command, too, though I didn't see it.
* The origin of which term I did not know until today, and it is easily the funniest thing I've read this week.