[mdlug] Linux push an economic phenomenon?

[Adam Tauno Williams]

On Mon, 2011-01-24 at 10:49 -0500, Dan Pritts wrote: 
> > You have my sympathies.  My first Linux machine was
> > a Cyrix 386 originally built to run windows (oh, how
> > I hated that, because I had been using Unix since '83!
> didn't realize you were an even older fogey than i am.  

My first Linux box was an 80386SX16 running kernel 0.99a.  Funny thing
is - it installed perfectly, everything worked, and X came right up.

> > I guess I got lucky with my hardware. 
> Laptops were the real bear, but I had problems on desktops too.  Want
> to add an extra serial port?  Nope, the card computer alley stocks
> doesn't have linux drivers.  Want your hard disk to work in anything
> except excruciatingly slow non-DMA legacy ATA mode?  Nope, buy an
> older laptop.  Want your monitor to work with your video card?  well,
> it's possible, all you have to do is...

I haven't had any of these issues for *years*.  I use USB serial dongles
and have never done any configuration. 

> And servers, for that matter; we had issues with dell 1750's, pretty 
> generic 1U boxes.  The RAID controller, or maybe the ethernet, wasn't 
> supported by debian because the device driver was not sufficiently Free.  
> That was when I gave up on debian.  

Giving up on Debian is a positive life-style choice.  There believe that
LINUX should be cranky and fractured isn't a problem with LINUX.

> I am SURE that things are better now.  Someone mentioned buying a 
> thinkpad with linux preinstalled, that is just awesome.