oooooohhhhh I know that answer !!! under linux just type
$ cat /proc/badmod.txt
under windows, you have to install dll'S and reboot.


graham

Obvious troll wasn't obvious enough to warrant total dismissal I guess

I have to ask, to what end, exactly?

Tinkster?

Yes. Me, for example.

Not the one I had in mind. Say no more.

I really have to admit to it,
the other day I was at a frieds place and brought the recent 2010 PC-Linux-OS install/live CD.

I've just put it into the optical drive and carelessly clicked a few times around:

*PAF*
It begun to install and guess what?
It installed flawlessly on a complexly partitioned multi hard disk system all by default recommended choices!

If You just don't take enough care: it installs!

Wait 'till the kids find out

Few days old, but I'm going to respond to this one, since I switch OSs frequently.

I support quite a range of systems professionally, and I would agree that every OS is a pita in one way or another. Some actually piss me off enough that I switch from one to another (2002 I moved every desktop I had to OSX because I'd had it with Windows and didn't like the new Ximian Gnome - just as an example of peevishness).
I have found things to hate and rant about with every OS, but I keep coming back to Linux and FreeBSD because at the end of the day, they work.

The compelling reasons people switch are Cost, Exposure, and Performance. Typically when someone goes from one OS to another it is due to a bad experience regarding one of these. People sometimes go "oooo shiny", but that wears off pretty quick and the hard work of, well, work, takes over. That first 6 mos on a new OS can be seriously painful.

My wife (an art major and author/bookstore owner) is a great example of an end user. She doesn't value computers for anything that isn't goal oriented. Her OS has usually been whatever I've managed to convince her to use, and she's rarely had an opinion. The only OS she has liked enough to tell her friends about is Ubuntu. She was ok with OSX, and put up with OS/2 and Windows, but she actually enjoys using Ubuntu more than any of the others.
Because of Performance and Cost. She had a netbook that performed poorly under XP, and we couldn't afford a new Mac or full sized laptop. She gave it a shot and came to be quite fond of it.

Those three factors will probably always determine what someone uses, to varying degrees.

Sorry for the huge long post

When I tried Ubuntu for the first time, I had a hell of a time getting my little Netgear WN111 USB wireless dongle working. I couldn't find any native Linux drivers for it (thanks Netgear ), but I could use ndiswrapper. However, I have to reset the router if I want online under Ubuntu.

This is the only major problem I've had so far with any Linux-based OS that I've used. Setting up Arch on this laptop was pretty much a snap: wireless worked OOB, getting xorg and Xfce working was a snap after installing the NVIDIA binary drivers, and everything else (Compiz, desktop software, etc.) has been virtually painless; everything's a pacman -S away.

(I don't know why I keep responding to this thread...maybe I'm just that bored and lonely. )

I think with Linux nowadays if there's something you want to do, it's either easy or hard - there's not much in-between. For example wireless - if your device is supported, click a few times in the network manager applet and you're online. If your device is not supported, you're in for a world of trouble. Or software installation - if it's in the repos, it's one command or a few clicks. If it's not in the repos, you're hunting for binaries that may or may not work or you're compiling from source and manually chasing dependencies when doing so.

For me I was fine after a few days!

This reminds me of trying to get NTFS-3G support working on RHEL 5 (long story). That was a complete pain, complete with trips to rpmfind and the whole ordeal. I ended up just compiling it from source.

I would tend to agree with you - most devices now 'just work' (except possibly OpenGL stuff...). I didn't have to do much at all to get my netbook or desktop up and running, and even very little on my old laptop with a Broadcomm card.

I have a question: why isn't Linux in your poll about Linux vs. Windows?

Maybe to avoid POLLution (LoL)?

When was that? I had NTFS-3G support from around CentOS 5.1(2) as I remember, maybe even earlier. I used rpmforge repositories with fuse and had no problems. But I did use CentOS-Plus kernels (everything is turned ON in those kernels).