[PLUG] This is seriously good

[Atul Sowani]

In general, a good article! I would like to share my thoughts on this
as an ordinary linux user. Please don't start any flame war on this,
as I am not trying to make any allegations on Linux - it might just be
that I am an incompetent user!

Linux is VERT robust and very cleverly designed OS - no doubt about
it. Also, there is no doubt linux supports more devices than any other
OS, but as a user, I don't agree with this. The list of devices
supported on linux is BIG, but that includes old and new devices. That
way the number of devices supported will be huge, but how many
_latest_ devices are supported on linux "out of box"? I am not
kernel/OS internals/device drivers geek, but just an ordinary linux
user.

Just to give an example, I installed a sound card in my PC which has
Win2000 and slackware linux 9.1/10.1 on it. When I installed the card
and restarted my machine, windows detected the card and could take
full advantage of it. On the other hand, when I booted my machine in
linux, I found that there is a very limited support on linux for this
card. Moreover, xine and audacity stopped playing/recording sound
since they couldn't find the audio device. So this means that I have
to re-configure lot of files and enable/disable daemons (esd etc).
Considering I am a _very ordinary_ user, I will not be able to fix
this problem myself. So I have to search internet resources, ask LUGs
and do some research on my part - this definitely is frustrating.

So, instead of claiming that linux supports widest range of hardware,
what it should try to do is how to simplify the
installation/detection/functioning with the latest hardware. If this
is achieved I am sure linux will be one of the most popular OS with
largest user base.

Thanks,
Atul.