** On 21 Feb 2002 15:47:10 -0500 Kevin McLauchlan dashed off this message:
pmfji:
**We gave up.
**A buddy of his wiped Linux, installed Windoze 98 and
**had him connected before they'd finished enjoying a
**couple of beers. No pain. No hassles. No cursing
**frustration.
**Windows found all the hardware and configured it
**without asking any obscure questions. Windows found
**the modem and recognized it instantly. Windows asked
**two questions to identify the ISP... and he was
**connected... browsing and getting e-mail.
I find this story hillarious, as my experience w/ most all versions of
Windows parallel your ( and brother's) experience trying to get Linux to
run. I haven't never had a completely correctly running windows of any
stripe, not even when using the various "Windows approved" hardware and
drivers.
I just wonder , tho , if putting an OS you aren't a semi guru w/ on a
laptop , most of which are using at least *some* proprietery hardware ,
isn't asking for trouble ? Posibly, if you had teh little thing in your
home you would have figured out the solution ( if there is one ) but
doning anything like that long distance can be a hassle.
**So that brother, like my wife, is permanently lost to
**Linux. No matter how much Linux improves in future,
**he'll never forget how much he learned to HATE it
**over the course of three evenings and most of a
**Saturday
Now, if only "Uncle" Bill could learn this lesson, and leave those of
us alone who simply don't interface well w/ his product , rather than
bludgeoning us , or threatening us, or worse, trying to get some
government flunky to outlaw us, the whole computing world would be
better off. <heavy sigh>
For most of the world there will be some OS or other that they will
actually like/enjoy or at least be able to use in a way that doesn't
threaten equanimity of home and hearth. Witness the Folks on tech tv,
that bastion of MS usage , telling people last night on "Call for help"
to go get a Macintosh , rather than to attempt to go thru the near
future horrors of (dot) net ! ( Call for help seems to be more a
beginner's show than , say, ScreenSavers where there are even references
to LInux ! ! )
At least there are now mentions on variuos tech news outlets that ,in
fact, there are OTHER systems out there. They aren't just for script
kiddies, grownups , in fact can and do real work on these systems, and
for the most part , one never even NEEDs to know what operating system
anyone else is using. ( that's what file filters are for <G>)
--
j
afterthought : You sound reasonable ... time to up my medication.