nujinini

Hi Everyone,

I was thinking whether to post this in the coffee lounge but since this is a wireless issue inquiry, I decided to post it here.

I replaced my Debian partition with a Mandriva and was very happy to see that the -wl was working right out of the box, I had the same experience with Mint.

In Debian, Fedora, openSUSE & PCLinuxOS, it was a different story. I am not complaining since I also enjoyed the learning process as I went through the troubles of configuring the -wl, with the help I got from this forum . I must say of the four distros I mentioned, I had the greatest challenge with openSUSE.

Can somebody please explain why the -wl runs out of the box with some seemingly "chosen few" distros and are relatively complicated to configure for others? Are there other distros that is pre-configured for its -wl to run out of the box? Would it not be possible to just make all the -wl of all distros run out of the box? Pardon my ignorance on this particular issue but I would really appreciate any enlightenment that can be shared

Thank you in advance.

EDIT: I just realized that the same also happened with the flash player, it works right out of the box.

MikeTbob

Some distros like Mint just don't seem to care or have found a loophole to where they can include most of the proprietary stuff like Wireless/Videos drivers and things like Flash, that other distros will not touch with a ten foot cane pole. I think this is why you get mixed results. It's also why I now recommend Mint for new to Linux folks.

__________________
I do not respond to private messages asking for help.
Please keep it on the forums only.

reed9

As I understand, it depends on two things.

1. The laws in the country where the distro is based.
2. The "mission statement" of the distro.

Mint is based in Ireland, where, presumably, the laws allow them to distribute proprietary software with their release. However, they have a "universal" edition for download, with the proprietary software removed. According to their website, "If you're a magazine, a reseller or a distributor in Japan or in the USA then choose this edition."

Beyond that, Mint has a very relaxed attitude towards proprietary software. In an interview with Free Software Magazine, Clement Lefebvre, the founder of Mint, said Whereas Debian and Fedora are very strict about not including non-free software in their distributions. For example, the Fedora project states on their website So it's not that there are a chosen few, but that different projects have different philosophies and goals, and are subject to different laws in different countries.

__________________
The Arch Way

How to Ask Questions the Smart Way
Registered Linux User #482863

nujinini

Yes, I have been recommending Mint to friends who want to try linux also since then.

nujinini

Yes. I have also started to recommend Mint to some friends who are first timers in Linux since then.

nujinini

Thank you.