Linux users are pretty dense, aren't they? They are also very poor mind readers.

I didn't read into that that you had already uninstalled, I understood you were begging for help with your 'net connection since apparently you had visited justlinux.com and got told off by one of those folk.

brent1a,
Don't go around talking about things you don't understand. You have no right to talk about linux like that, because you really don't know how to use it. I hate when people migrate over from windows and expect everything to be the same. Linux and Windows are 2 very different operating systems. Linux is not for everyone it can get very complex. However, guys like me love when things get complex, because that level of complexity give you power, and power gives you control. If you don't like Linux that's fine, but at least post your complaints in the right forms and insult things. I hate windows but do you see me making pointless complaints?

No.

If you still want to play around with Linux, here are some suggestions:
1. DIfferent distributions indeed appear very different...actually most of the differences are in user tools, not the
underlying system or functional programs. BUT especially for newbies, it is extremely confusing. SO, while new you should stick to forums or forum posts that are specifically geared for your distro.
2. I have been using SuSE since 6.3, on laptops, old crappy 486's, Athlons, fast new laptops, etc. etc. I have connected it to the internet through dial-up, DSL, direct cable modem, router+cable modem (much safer) and wireless. like it better than Red Hat
or others because it does have nice user-friendly tools (notable YaST) and they DO WORK (unlike RedHat versions I tried). I am very surprised the base install did not work for you.
a) Did you READ and FOLLOW the install instructions EXACTLY? For example, at the very beginning of the install you must choose Install Kernel Modules to load the driver for your ethernet card, rather than going straight to Install. Sometimes the translation of the German dialogs leaves something to be desired. Later on after reboot it tries to test your internet connection. If that doesn't work there is a log you can view to help diagnose. If your net connection is set up rationally (DHCP all the way) you do not need to know any IP addresses. You may possibly need to put in your provider's IP to your ROUTER when configuring it, but you should be able to talk to the router via SuSE very easily.
b) The only problem I EVER had connecting SuSE to the net was with an unsupported Alcatel USB-cable modem. It was supposedly supported in Mandrake, but didn't work (see 2 above). WIth SuSE I googled around, downloaded a usermode driver from some guy in France, installed it, and away it went.

Linux is not for everyone (yet). But as a scientist I could not do my work without it.

Brent1a: Sorry that your Linux experience wasn't a good one and I hope your next one is better. I think the reason you get responses that appear not so helpful is because "freedoom of choice". Most of the people here want to "be here", they want to use Linux...no is making them. Some seasoned Linux users would like to see that "want" or desire in you, they want to know you want to be here and the only way to do that in a electronic medium such as this is to say what you have done to be here. What homework or research have you done. As you have seen Linux is not as waterdowned as windows and not all the answers are easy to find just by right clicking and looking at the menus or looking in the "options" applet. Some of them them are put off by people who make the desicion to switch to Linux without doing your homework prior to making the move and doing a little reading possibly indicates their intensions for switching may not have been the right ones. Also, a lot of us what you to learn in the way we did. By teaching oursleves. Yeah, of course, all of us needed a push, but the volumes you learn doing most of the work yourself is way more rewarding. You will hear or see the quote...Don't give the man the fish...but teach him to fish here. We or at least I, want you and everyone to have the same passion about Linux as we do. Not all of us are not anti Windows,but we all think there are better choices. some feel if we just give you the answers you may miss the reasons to stay with Linux.

Again, I'm sorry it didnt go so well, and really do hope you try it again. Linux really is the best.

Netizen

If you are still monitoring this thread brent1a, have you considered trying a "live CD" such as Knoppix? Boot from one of these CDs without installing and run Linux. For examples, here is a bunch of live CDs:

Live Linux CD's - Run Linux From A Bootable CD

Do I buy a boxed source, download off the internet or buy some cheap CDs?
It's your choice! If you download, I suggest that you check the md5sums on the Linux ISO Images and make sure you know how to burn ISOs in Windows to install Linux
# Cheap CDs
AlmostFreeLinux
Discount Linux CDs
Linux Central
Cheapbytes
TuxCDs
ComputerHelperGuy
CheapISO
Os Heaven

" Why is it impossible? ( post #1)

It's been 3 1/2 weeks since I began fooling around with SuSE 9.1 Pro and it's been 1 week since I've completley given up on linux, as a whole, and since reaffirmed my loyalty back to XP. WHY?
1. Every time I get on 1 of 7 forums and people try to help me it's a disaster. Everyone uses drastically different versions of Linux and everyone assumes that I should be an expert already so as to understand command lines in the console and stuff like that.
2. No one in the world can get me connected to the internet. It should be realtively simple. All I need to establish my 'always on' connection in XP is: DSL modem, NIC card, IP Address, Subnet Mask, Default Gateway, DNS Primary, and DNS Alternate. Apparently all Linux OS's can't connect with that at all. Apparently it's impossible to connect to the internet unless you have whatever the hell PPPOE and DHCP is. In fact, this PPPOE and Tunneling protocol and DHCP crap has nothing to do with my ISP. They don't use any of that at all.
So basically, I was severely optimistic with a lot of hope that I could tell Microsoft to shove it but it seems as though the people (linux programmers, creators, forums) I thought would help me do that have simply shoved me back to MicroSoft instead.
Thanks."

Sorry for appearing rude but, I wouldn't recommend SuSE. I recommend redhat, or mandrake. If you can't get those to work then your have to find a distro that works for you. Try looking around. There are tons of distros out there! I find that in some cases the same difference in drivers that come with each distros can decide rather or no it runs automatically with your hardware. If you can't find a distro that will detect and configure your hardware automatically then I'd recomend you read a lot of faqs and come to sites like this and ask questions. I'm happy to help any newb who's in trouble. I actual learned Linux by playing around with my systems settings to get the most out of my hardware. Ex: I learned about runlevels, the inittab file, and unfortunately how to make grub boot in a certain run level, from configuring my video card. There's a lot to learn out there! Keep your head up and read some books faqs or whatever floats your boat. One book I have to recomend to every Linux newb out there is "Linux In A Nutshell". Learning a new OS seems hard, but for most cases so was learning to ride a bike. I know it's easy to get mad at Linux because of hardware incabatibilities, but no OS can ship supporting every piece of hardware out there. Remember the "other" OS on your computer probably came with it. Have fun, and always remember, nothing works perfectly out of the box! You have to take action to get it to work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

O and by the way: every version of red hat since 8.0 has auto detected my cable internet conection fine.