Linked by Iain Alexander on Thu 17th Apr 2003 07:28 UTC
Several days ago I wrote a rather scathing article about my utter dismay and disappoint with Mandrake 9.1 and by association, Linux as a whole. Since then I have had many many flames and equally as many agreeing emails (is there a simple opposite word for flame?) Since then I have been trying, really really trying to get my system working fully. But time and again I'm coming up against the same brick wall of (un)usability, computer esotericism and down right idiocy. 
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If you're building a computer just to run Linux then obviously you can chose hardware that's known to work well in it. But if you want to buy a ready built system or you have an existing computer, hardware support can be real problem. Linux hardware support also limits your choice, you can't always chose the best value solution.
I bought a Radeon 9500 pro rather than an Nvidia card, as at the time they gave better performance for the cost. Unfortunately ATI's drivers for Linux are garbage, I've had stability problems and AFAIK there's nothing like Nvidia's TwinView available. If I wanted to use Linux as my main OS I'd hard to replace that quite expensive card, which would wipe out most of the money saved by using free software.
Almost all broadband ISPs where I live provide free USB modems when you sign up with them, they're the only ones I've ever seen in highstreet shops. Having to buy a non-usb solution would add quite a lot to the cost and wouldn't be supported by the ISP. I spent several days reading FAQs and HOWTOs, editing config files and compiling kernel modules to get the provided modem working in Linux. In Windows it worked with a few clicks of the mouse and was online in minutes.
My point is that it isn't just unusual or low quality hardware that isn't well supported in Linux. That may not be the fault of Linux, but I think it will keep a lot of people from switching even if they like using Linux.