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- Spr0k3t, on 01/05/2008, -12/+72Most USB and 802.11N adapters will not work on Linux without headaches. Some just won't work period. Not just Ubuntu, but GNU/Linux in general. Until there is better support coming from the hardware vendors, stick with a wireless card that is already supported at the kernel level. It doesn't take but five minutes to find a good wireless card that will work with Linux. I hope the next time this guy attempts to review a Linux distro, he does a little research first.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Wireles ... - lukas88, on 01/05/2008, -7/+44To be fair, linux has better support for wireless adapters than windows. How many of those devices "just work" without installing a driver first on windows? The challenge with linux is that you don't get a CD with the drivers on it, it takes some work.
Compared to windows, I'm always amazed at how few drivers I have to install manually after installing linux. The video driver is typically automatic, and half the time so is the wireless and the soundcard drivers. Compare that to windows where you will be lucky if any one of those three are automatic. - wisam, on 01/05/2008, -2/+36Network Manager is one buggy application. When it comes to wired networking, it works well but when it comes to wireless, it is a pain in the neck. I spent hours trying to get it work with my wireless connection and fails. It connects for seconds and disconnects on its own. The thing is that it sometimes work and sometimes it doesn't.
- gronne, on 01/05/2008, -3/+30I think it's valid when he's talking about the experience of migrating from Windows to Linux. Those adapters worked on Windows. He's talking about the experience of "converting" to new software not replacing existing hardware.
- thedragon4453, on 01/05/2008, -3/+28Yeah, my grandma just runs the setup.exe and configures for wpa security after she wires her router and configures it correctly.
Its a tired argument. Windows is no more usable than a lot of Linux distros. In fact, in a lot of ways, I wish Windows were more like Linux. For supported hardware there is often nothing you have to do. If you could get the hardware devs to code Linux drivers, this really wouldnt be an issue at all.
I use both. Windows has its strengths, but seriously, this argument is almost ridiculous. It's an excuse for problems created by Microsoft having a monopoly on home computing. I like Windows, but Vista is a pretty good example of what happens when you get the monopoly MS has. a $200 skin. - JoeRockEHF, on 01/05/2008, -0/+17This was actually the first version of Ubuntu that I didn't have a problem with a wireless connection.
- schestowitz, on 01/05/2008, -11/+27The headline should say "Wireless card", not "Wireless" NDISWRAPPER is the result of s***tty cards whose makers ignore platforms that are not Windows. It's not the fault of GNU/Linux.
- zwaldowski, on 01/05/2008, -3/+18But, if the button in the top right corner tells you you need to install something to make another thing work, grammas will click it. Nuff said.
- brstilson, on 01/05/2008, -2/+17Ok, first of all, what the hell kind of ancient laptop is this guy using if he needs a PCMCIA card to have wireless?
I have an Acer laptop with the Broadcom wireless adapter and it worked right out-of-the-box for my Gutsy installation. - clickwir, on 01/05/2008, -1/+14Right, grandma is not going to open a terminal and compile ndiswrapper. And neither is any user of K/Ubuntu. It's an installable package that the GUI program manager can easily install for you.
- matrox212, on 01/05/2008, -16/+28Grandma's aren't going to open up terminal and compile Ndiswrapper. Nuff said.
- schestowitz, on 01/05/2008, -3/+14The kernel hackers write drivers for free. The makers just need to let their documentation be passed to them. The kernel hackers responsible for driver has recently said it was _under_worked.
- tech42er, on 01/05/2008, -0/+11What card do you have? Most internal wireless is supported in Gutsy.
- craigsfans, on 01/05/2008, -1/+11I just got my dell XPS 1210. Removed vista after first boot. Ubuntu works fine with the integrated wifi card.
not test with other card, but someone said few USB card works.
but Ubuntu Rocks. - munro84, on 01/05/2008, -2/+12If you spent half as much time googling as you do talking crap about your mac, you would realise that ubuntu has a dedicated support forum with ALL this information on how to do it, if it doesnt work straight off the bat... Which in most cases i does.... You know why your mac just works? Cos it has LIMITED hardware to deal with... Linux supports every piece of hardware on this planet....
Nuff said, stupid people should use their macs and leave the smart people to linux - mikelieman, on 01/05/2008, -3/+12I guess the vendor even documenting the card is too much to ask? It's not like Linux folks wouldn't port the thing if it wasn't a total pain in the ass to have to reverse engineer everything...
- inactive, on 01/05/2008, -3/+11The main issue siwasher is that hardware vendors don't support an open source (community) solution. They are hell bent on keeping only windows in their files and nothing else. Untill hardware vendors accept that *nix is a capable system then it will remain so. The sad part is it will take *Nix being installed on more than 30% of the PC's available before they will consider writing one line of code to change things. By then others may have stepped up to the plate and it will be too late for some to claw back market share.
- zwaldowski, on 01/05/2008, -2/+10Out of box is not the same as having drivers licensed from the companies in a cabinet file.
- zwaldowski, on 01/05/2008, -1/+8Of course, Windows Vista does not come prepackaged with Office '07, Photoshop, Picasa, Skype, Trillian, or Visual Studio.
- nanostream, on 01/05/2008, -4/+11REPLY
- WindyT, on 01/05/2008, -0/+7I'm new to Ubuntu and learned the hard way that the Netgear WG111T USB drivers didn't want to play with NDISWRAPPER. I figured I had done something wrong, so I did a HD wipe and another clean install, only to be in the same spot. Luckily this machine is a spare (I had hoped to use this with MythTV next to the big TV set) so I can do more research.
But don't assume that every Windows driver will automatically work when you invoke NDISWRAPPER. - mikelieman, on 01/05/2008, -0/+7My aetheros based WiFi card also worked out-of-the-box with Kubuntu 7.10.
- josh1413, on 01/05/2008, -0/+7Without granny, you wouldn't be here.......
- mercurysquad, on 01/05/2008, -1/+7I think the problem with the reviewer was not getting his wireless card to work (which he did, according to the screenshot), but using the inappropriate tool to try to connect to a network. Why not simply use the NetworkManager icon near the notification area? The Network Settings box is kinda outdated now that network manager is installed by default in Ubuntu. There is no reason it won't work for you if your wireless drivers are working.
- willfe, on 01/05/2008, -0/+6It's not so much "we only love Windows!" but more a combination of two things: 1) they may be licensing, not creating, the chipsets involved and *can't* release technical specs to permit outside programmers to create a driver; 2) they may not have (or be willing to commit) the resources to develop "yet another driver build."
(1) can be dealt with by wandering up the chain to the original chipset builders and bugging *them* for specs to make open source drivers a reality (I'm looking at you, Broadcom). (2) isn't really an issue once (1) is out of the way -- if Broadcom were to release a hundred-page spec tomorrow with full hardware interface specifications and coding examples to deal with their chips, we'd have a native, open-source driver within a day or two from the community. - matrox212, on 01/05/2008, -1/+7Recent Linux distros all seem to have better wireless compatibility with laptops. I don't know if it's because there are fewer intergrated chipsets to make work or what. On the desktop with a PCI wireless card and many USB wireless cards though, it's still a serious pain.
- secleinteer, on 01/05/2008, -0/+6Actually, the Distrowatch ratings are based solely on the number of times the *Distrowatch* page for that distro has been accessed, which is a pretty poor measurement of usage.
- zwaldowski, on 01/05/2008, -2/+8SESSION ERROR
- MBro, on 01/05/2008, -0/+6I find it much easier to give people something they can copy and paste into the terminal than having to explain to them what button to push and how to browse for a file.
Giving someone a text file that they just have to copy and paste line for line is so much easier than having them follow point and click directions. - Coded1, on 01/05/2008, -0/+5He's right there. My Audigy 2 is given via windows update but only gives me a fraction of what the drivers from creative give me on the same hardware.
- inactive, on 08/26/2008, -1/+6I don't use ndiswrapper, so excuse me if I'm mistaken, but isn't he supposed to run 'modprobe ndiswrapper' and/or add ndiswrapper to /etc/modules or something like that?
- skyshock1, on 01/05/2008, -0/+5I've had zero problems with it. *shrug*
I use a netgear WG series card and not only is it detected, but fully supported. Signal strength is fantastic... I always hear people complain about nm-applet but I've honestly had no such problems at all. - obxjdt, on 01/05/2008, -0/+5WiFi for some reason seems to be the biggest problem the open source community is running into. The WiFi makers are reluctant to release their code, so the GNU coders are trying to reverse engineer them, and write a GPL version. Nvidia, ATI, SoundBlaster, and Adobe have made restricted source codes available to the Linux coders, Why not the WiFi ???
- thinman1189, on 01/05/2008, -1/+6Last time I checked, Ubuntu is gratis free and OSX is far from it. So since you're not directly spending money on Ubuntu, the only way is if you were to buy replacement hardware for it; something you didn't say you did or would have to do. If time is money, why mention it twice? And you're not a fanboy, you're just pampered and lazy.
- sputty, on 01/05/2008, -0/+5Not really related to the story but ive been testing linux out for a few weeks on my nice new laptop, ive had a go with it before and thought it was a great idea but not quite up to reaching the mainstream yet, over the last 2 weeks ive totally changed my mind, its great, REALLY great. It takes a while to get used to because of the huge differences but when you actually get into it it has features years ahead of windows of osx, ok so you have to use the terminal now and again but after a week or so it actually makes tasks a hell of a lot faster and once your system is set up its needed very little at all.... just give it a try, i hate to sound like all the linux fanboys around here but if you actually give the thing a try its absolutely amazing, it just takes a while to get used to.
- say592, on 01/05/2008, -0/+5I found that neither of my adapters work in Live mode (they are detected, but wont accept the WPA) but they both work when I install it.
Its weird like that. I love my Ubuntu though. - shiddysmurf, on 01/05/2008, -3/+7I have a Belkin f5d7001 which has notorious probs w/ linux. but when I install Ubuntu 7.10 it found it w/ no prob. the wireless support is excellent. i want to ***** in that guys mouth.
- fcukthisgame, on 01/05/2008, -0/+4I'll definitely give you that it's buggy. But from my experience, running Gentoo and Ubuntu, and having toyed with a few other distros, Network Manager is by far the most robust application of the type. In Gentoo, I set my ESSIDs, WPA keys, etc in configuration files, but when I change locations, it becomes a real pain in the ass.
I can't think of any other app that will handle WPA keys, switching networks, etc. Especially from someone who deals with Gentoo where it's all command line and config file based, it's awesome (...when it works) - tech42er, on 01/05/2008, -1/+5Lay off the elitism. He tried it, he couldn't get it to work, so he went back to OSX. Perfectly ***** reasonable.
- Ademan, on 01/05/2008, -0/+4Especially when you consider ubuntu (among linux enthusiasts) is THE most well known name (even if it's not the most used, but I bet it's that too) so the idea that a linux enthusiast (mostly what distro watch caters to) is going to go to distro watch to *discover* ubuntu is preposterous. That's actually why I'm astounded ubuntu has remained so high on distrowatch's list.
(Not to mention I absolutely abhor pclinuxos for some ***** they pulled probably 6 months ago) - tech42er, on 01/05/2008, -0/+4Broadcom support has gotten much better, though. My last 2 laptops (both Broadcom-based) worked automatically in Gutsy.
- inactive, on 01/05/2008, -0/+4Now if only other distros know anything about marketing
- encrypter, on 01/05/2008, -1/+5do you want a cup as well?
- R3j3ct, on 01/05/2008, -2/+6Yeah, and I paid $400 for my laptop and spent about an hour getting ubuntu to work perfectly and you paid over a grand for your macbook and they can probably perform identically for 95% of the tasks that we wish to acomplish...
- Kamujin, on 01/05/2008, -1/+5Because your talking to people with deeply held religous beliefs about ... of all things... an operating system.
Fear not, most sane people didn't even scroll down this far. - CarzorStelatis, on 01/05/2008, -1/+4RTFA. The guy said he DID ask on forums etc. (after his existing wireless connector didn't work) and the one he was suggested to buy didn't work either.
- aaabatteries, on 01/05/2008, -1/+4really?
I got wireless to work instantly on my macbook with Puppy Linux without even connecting to the netz,
but couldn't get it to work on ubuntu unless I installed some closed source drivers which was the only option it gave me. - clickwir, on 01/05/2008, -0/+3Everyone has a different story. For me, wireless in Kubuntu is 10 times easier than Windows. Kubuntu helped me out by being able to get online when 3 other windows users were stuck looking for drivers. "What kind of wireless card and model.... wtf how the hell am I supposed to know that??!?!"
While I sat there. "Oh thank you Kubuntu for auto detecting my Broadcom wireless card and offering to enable drivers"
I was on in 30 seconds and then started helping the windows users find drivers. No, wireless and hardware support is not 100% perfect in linux, but it isn't in windows either. - inactive, on 01/05/2008, -0/+3got intel wifi with working WPA.
- kevmck, on 01/05/2008, -0/+3Number one- Try the 32bit version.
most things on ubuntu are much better supported on 32bit. -
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