I have realized that the only reason i'm running (x)ubuntu(studio) is because when i install the os all i need to do to get my wireless card and etc. to work is to plug into a wired network and within a minute or so a pop up will appear asking to download and install the drivers. another minute and my laptop is running perfectly.
which other distros are there that do this or something similar and is there a program i can download and install that will do the same thing.

thanks in advance
iwan

All distros detect hardware equally well. Some cheat by including or making it easy to include non-free elements. That is why you like *buntu evidently. Most seasoned *nix users prefer to do it themselves.

It is not just a matter of hardware detection, the hardware must be able to work with the distribution that you are using. I have used distributions such as Ubuntu which have problems with rather common drivers such as the Realtek 8169 NIC driver. The driver will work on many Linux distributions but a fix needs to be applied to get it to work with Ubuntu and certain other distributions.

In my experience, people who like to use their computers for things other than trying out Linux distributions prefer to have the OS auto-detect and install drivers for hardware.