An idea

[techieMoe]

I agree with each and everyone of you. But I am a user, not an administrator or configuration manager. I don't care which version I am using, I hardly care which hardware it should go on.

This tells me that you really shouldn't try Linux. Linux assumes you are interested in what hardware you have, and what version of Linux you install. You *must* be curious about these things or you'll never get Linux working properly, IMO. Stick with MS Windows. I'm not saying this to dismiss you, I'm saying it because you really sound like you're not the target audience for Linux and should explore other operating system options.

[carlosponti]

i installed slackware 10.0 on my notebook WITH ABSOLUTELY NO PROBLEMS FIRST TIME THRU. and was seraching the web and chatting on IM immediately so all i can say is that your problems are that you dont even know what you have on your PC's. the older PII system btw try running XP on it with only 64 mb ram IT WONT HAPPEN. im thinking that you do need to stick to windows though obviously you cannot get anything done. that is pretty bad considering i am not a system admin type either. plus have you even tried posting your problems in the APPROPRIATE forum. maybe someone would have been able to help you.

[deek]

Yeah, you could get lucky and get everything working first time through, but that is the exception, not the rule. I have to agree with previous comments, linux is still for those that want to do a little more manual "tweaking" and configuring and you have to know your hardware pretty well. Not all the time, but when a problem occurs, you need to be able to know what you got in order to fix it.

Besides a LiveCD, any harddrive install took me a couple times through the install until I got it right (especially when I first got into linux...I think I went through SUSE's FTP install three times and then Slackware two/three times before I felt good about my system).

Granted, I have experienced similar issues with windows in the past, the difference is, that with windows, hardware may work, just not fully, without the proper drivers...in linux, some hardware does not work at all until you get the proper drivers...right now, i think windows has the edge with working on most hardware by default, just to get it partially functioning, but really, its still not going to work perfectly...

[carlosponti]

i havent had an install yet that wasnt running and on the network. now tweaking that is another issue all together i have a mobo that has a kt600 chipset and until i get a kernel that supports it installed i am stuck with 2-d graphics. but it runs!

[technossomy]

Thanks all for your honest opinions and I hope you will take my comments in the spirit towards a fully human-empowered computing philosophy.