Glenn I think you're right to a certain extent and I have been where you are. It is a steep learning curve but you don't need to move up it particularly quickly. Part of the difficulty you have is that you need/want to get a modem going as this can prove to be difficult - or impossible - even for the gurus depending on the specific hardware. Being on DSL or cable certainly makes things simpler, it will probably "just work". I spent some years continually frustrated by one thing or another, feeling incredibly stupid at times since so many little things would baffle me, and I have a background of some years successfully doing nearly any windows-based setup and networking I desired. However when I look back at my early windows days, there was pain there too! I hung in there despite the setbacks, asked questions on linux lists, googled, and didn't give up. Distros improved but so did my understanding of linux administration. My path has taken me through various distros as I've learnt, and my experience these days is that nearly everything works out of the box (I'm generally talking kubuntu). However there will be something that does/will not and I live with that and look to the next release. Where something different will cause me grief. But I hang in there, I'm looking forward to Intrepid Ibex's release tomorrow or the next day and will give it a spin, perhaps this will be the one where everything "just works" . . . Regards Roger Glenn Stuart Morrissey wrote:

I don't think linux has the advantage when It comes to complete novices like me. I think Windows, with all its faults, still is easier to set up and run out of the box than Linux. I think it has a way to go before it is serious competition with windows for anyone other than advanced computer users. The learning curve is very steep. Its such a shame because Linux seems so attractive.

Glenn. _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug

2008/10/29 Glenn Stuart Morrissey <gmorrissey(a)kol.co.nz>

I don't think linux has the advantage when It comes to complete novices like me. I think Windows, with all its faults, still is easier to set up and run out of the box than Linux. I think it has a way to go before it is serious competition with windows for anyone other than advanced computer users. The learning curve is very steep. Its such a shame because Linux seems so attractive.

Windows has the advantage of being a monopoly, manufacturers have to write Windows drivers or nobody will buy their hardware. Linux is starting to get much better support in this area and you'll find where manufacturers have fully embraced the 'open source' way of doing things, getting the hardware to work requires nothing more than plugging it in. But unfortunately some hardware still has little or no support in Linux. Two suggestions; External serial modems are cheap, about $15-$20 on Trademe. And people keep giving me free ones which I give away so I can avoid solving problems like this. Let me know if you'd like one. Serial modems 'just work' in any mainstream Linux distro. If you're going to be compiling drivers or trying to run windows drivers in some form of emulation wrapper, you'll find things are much more likely to work in 32-bit linux. Getting winmodems to work is always difficult, getting driver wrapper-glue and 32-bit binary blobs to build in 64-bit Linux is much more difficult.