On Thu, 2006-03-09 at 15:08 +0000, Stuart Fox wrote:

Pretty much all linux's have the same hardware support, a linux kernel is a linux kernel whatever the flavour.

I'd add that a lot of the difference in hardware support stems from the installer and default package list.

This is why there can be a difference between distributions...all should support the same hardware but some will do it with less user interaction than others.

On Thu, Mar 09, 2006 at 03:08:29PM -0000, Stuart Fox wrote:

...

Pretty much all linux's have the same hardware support, a linux kernel is a linux kernel whatever the flavour. The same goes for software, the difference being package management. Debian based systems are supposed to have the best package management via the apt/dpkg system. Depends on what software you mean though. Commercial/non-free software tend to release rpm based packages for redhat though others may be available. Of course there is almost always the option to compile your own :)

I'd disagree somewhat, as Debian seems to remove drivers they consider to be "non-free" (drivers with binary firmwares that don't have source aiui) from the kernel and distros like Ubuntu who take a different view and add lots of patches of various drivers and binary firmwares so they can support more hardware "out of the box" (of course idealogically this makes them more "non-free"). Other distros come somewhere inbetween these points (and probably others have more polarisation).

I hear what you are saying and dont want to be nit-picky but thats a distro issue again. Non-free/closed source drivers dont make it into the mainline kernel. There is a difference between drivers and firmware. Very few hardware companies ever open their firmware, it's where their real ip is.

In my experience, doing a bog standard install of Ubuntu on a laptop is more likely to get all the hardware working (and generally does *much* better than Windows ever could) than doing a bog standard install of Debian which will end up with me having to do things like download drivers and firmware for the wireless card for example.

Thanks Adam

Distro's tend to be aimed at different applications, they *could* all do the same job but it would be harder on some. I wouldnt run mandrake (is it still called that?) as a server for example. Distros aimed at desktops usually include extra's, things that wouldnt qualify as open license compliant but that people want. Think of when redhat removed mp3 functionality from fedora. Ubuntu seems to be the "market" leader for desktops at the moment because it is easy to setup and has excellent out-of-the-box hardware setup.

Again I dislike distros because none of them do exactly what i want without all that other gumph that goes with it, LFS is king :)

Cheers

Stuart

On Fri, Mar 10, 2006 at 11:48:36AM -0000, Stuart Fox wrote:

...

I hear what you are saying and dont want to be nit-picky but thats a distro issue again. Non-free/closed source drivers dont make it into the mainline kernel. There is a difference between drivers and firmware. Very few hardware companies ever open their firmware, it's where their real ip is.

All true, but given that the original question was suggestions for a distro to run on a wireless 54g laptop it is rather relevant to the question as not all distros will play as nicely as each other on the hardware. I kinda guess my original post was a "try ubuntu" as it has good (the best?) hardware support, a huge range of software and a reasonable choice of Gnome or KDE as desktop (and given that the OP has a 54g laptop it shouldn't really be a problem on the hardware front) suitable for a newbie. Of course, I wouldn't want to suggest someone to start with LFS as it isn't the best way to get going (imho) ;) at least a default install of Ubuntu should get the machine working and give a feel of Linux desktop options.

Thanks Adam -- jabberid = quinophex@jabber.earth.li AFFS || http://www.affs.org.uk/ || Not a filesystem

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Totally agree, LFS def is not a good way to start :) sometimes its a PITA even when you know what you're doing. It is, howver, extremely satisfying and I would recommend it as a learning experience further donw the road.

Ubuntu is probably the best choice for a newbie at the moment. Much as I dont like the bloat of RH/Fedora systems, their install routine is excellent.

Mind you, if there are no drivers for his particular 54g card then no distro is going to be ideal :)

Cheers

Stuart