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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Here we go. This is a real valid criticism of Linux.
Hardware support.
Honestly, this is probably the toughest issue to face. Enterprise level support of hardware commonly used on servers is there for linux. However, even when the support is there. It does not mean that the drivers are any good.
BTW, I heard the very latest ATI drivers were a ton better. I saw some noise about this on a few lists maybe last week.
Even when the hardware is supported getting it setup can be a pain.
Sure, printers are easy with almost every major distro giving a nice gui and a list and using CUPS and all that jazz.
However, getting USB devices and Firewire devices working can be an exercise in pain. Until the folks making the hardware make the tools to not only access the device (ie drivers) but setup tools I do not seeing the situation getting a lot better. Better support for these devices through hardware detection (ie Kudzu,Yast2 and others) and setup are needed.
I helped a friend get his Firewire HD working but it took a good hour or two of tweaking about and this with both of us having together over a decade of unix experience and me having nearly 7 years of linux experience alone.