Paul Sims wrote:
BTW, I tried a full release version of BeOS 4.5 recently - if you want seriously limited hardware support, there is Public Enemy #1. Commercial Unix can be just as bad - some systems have a Supported hardware list shorter than the ingredients listing on a can of soup!
The lack of varied hardware support for commercial Unices isn't as much of a problem as it would seem at first. Linux users are generally an adventurous and exploratory lot. Commercial Unices, on the other hand, are often used in an environment where they have just one job to do, and most interaction is over a network. Under those circumstances you can get along with pretty simple hardware aside from the processor, storage peripherals, and network interface. Things like sound and video cards just aren't an issue, and those cards account for a lot of the problems people have with hardware under Linux. I won't argue that administrators of proprietary Unix systems are right in their perception that Linux is less reliable and has less support than the proprietary versions. The question is whether that perception is widespread - and if it is, whether anything can or ought be done about it. Paul Abrahams -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/