Per Jessen
The problem will prevent Suse (on any version of Linux that goes down this path) from ever becomming a mainstream Desktop OS.
Just of curiosity - what would you say defines a mainstream Desktop OS? For instance in terms of market-share? As to whether the GPL vs non-GPL drivers issue will prevent Linux from becoming mainstream, I'm not so sure. Very large European public administrations have already gone Linux - perhaps it's not mainstream, but very impressive nonetheless.
or Linux would have to be changed so that users could install drivers from vendors without having to go through complex Kernel rebuilds (dlls, loadable modules, etc.).
I believe some of that is already in the pipeline.
The problem with not buying products lacking open-source drivers is that you will eliminate a large number (most) of �the options for the user to buy.
I beg to differ. So far we use only SUSE Linux, and we've only hit one case where 10.1 did not provide the driver - Atheros wifi. We got it from madwifi instead. Our hardware is very varied - IBM Thinkpads, misc workstations, desktops, Compaq servers.
I was hoping to put �Suse 10.1 on my �IBM T41 laptop, but with the lack of hardware support for the modem, I'll have to pass.
I've put 10.1 on our newly purchased IBM R51e - no significant problems. /Per Jessen, Z�rich Main stream = large scale usage of OS by Non-technical users as well as technical users. This includes home users as well. The WiFi Module requires you to be a technical user to install it, thus preventing non-techs from general usage. I also do believe that for the IBM laptops there is problem with finding a driver for the internal modem (discussed in this thread). Yes, some of use still use modems. Bottom line, if you do not provide drivers to the users (non-techs I mean) that are at least is easy to install as on Windows XP, you will not make much inroads to that user base.