The thing is, you buy a mac with preinstalled OS X, and you buy a PC with preinstalled Windows so it just works, because someone else already tested it so it works. If you would buy a PC with preinstalled Linux it would most probably also just work.
Yes, and one of my earlier machines "just worked" and no doubt that was in part because it has Linux pre-installed.
And what you say is one of the main reasons that being able to buy a machine with Linux pre-installed is such a big deal, and potentially a milestone. It's a minor miracle that Linux is getting the market penetration it does given the near total lack of pre-installed machines.
But it's chicken and egg. Here I am being driven to use Windows when I need wireless connectivity because I can't get the Ubuntu wireless system to work. It's at the point where I browse on the Windows machine, and putty into an Ubuntu machine to do my real work - not a good solution long term. I need to get the wireless working.
But where do I start? I've already spent 2 hours searching around, reading forum postings, reading blogs, trying to find out what's going on, and it's clear that I need to learn a lot more before I can start to understand the problems. Quite simply, it's not a cost-effective option, because I don't want to become a Linux internals expert. With the money I could make during the time I spend sorting this out I could easily just have bought a Mac. Which is a shame.
In a sense this is not a complaint - this is a fleshing out of the current situation with respect to installing Linux on a laptop. It would be nice to play a small part in helping to get it sorted.
When you say "linux" are you referring to the latest Ubuntu release or the /. & HN unpragmatic suggestions to use other distros out of some sort of nerd's protest? I'd be curious if you popped in a Ubuntu live cd or flash drive using 13.10 if your wireless would work.
Personally for me, Ubuntu is used for desktops and servers (one of few options if you want optional paid support, and Ubuntu is slick). Apple for new hardware/laptops, with the introduction of Windows8 I don't see any problem with that. Nothing wrong with Apple or OSX, top notch quality, can't be beat at this point. I would still put a copy of Windows7 on a machine used primarily for gaming though (nothing really wrong with Win7 either, IMO best GUI interface conceived).
No store anywhere near me has a PC with Linux pre-installed. I don't know how I would go about finding one in which I would have any confidence at all. Without a local store, how would I get potential problems sorted? Without a local store, any problems would land me in the same situation I'm in now.
See the dilemma?
For example, I'm on an Ubuntu machine now, and I've recently tried to upgrade it, but apparently it's too far out of date. I've tried to install some software, but it can't find the necessary site that has the package. So now what? I have nowhere to go apart from the internet, and suddenly I am once again having to learn stuff that I really don't want to have to know.
Again, this isn't a complaint, it's an attempt to help define and clarify the problems faced in getting Ubuntu (and other distros) more widely adopted, something I would love to see.
I have a two year old Gazelle Professional from System76. Everything worked out of the box, and in the one case I had an issue (related to reinstalling the OS from a thumb drive), the System76 tech support was absolutely fantastic. Got a direct line to someone who knew all about Linux internals and was able to fix my problem before I could finish articulating it. And for less than the price of a Macbook Pro, I got an i7 processor, two hard drives (Ubuntu preinstalled on a 128GB SSD + a 500GB HD for storage), a beautiful 1080p matte screen, a nice graphics card, and 16GB of RAM. Like I said, this was two years ago and it's still better than most laptops you can get in the price range. The only downside is that the thing is like 6 pounds and sucks up power, but as desktop replacements go I think it would be hard to find better. So the options are there, just not in retail stores yet.
Unfortunately, they seem to have cut the price and removed the discrete graphics card option from the current Gazelle Professional. I guess that makes sense given the state of Linux gaming, but being able to run CUDA on a $1200 laptop was pretty awesome :(
When I bought a System76 computer around the same time-- the low end model for my wife and kids--Ubuntu crashed during setup and never recovered. Fortunately I am savvy enough to be able to do a fresh install. Fortunately, everything did work "out of the box" when I did a fresh install. But average computer user... that just doesn't work.
I understand that frustration, and in the past I considered going back to windows. The thing is, for me at least, when I have a problem on my linux box there is a vast community that seems eager to help. Usually someone else has had my problem and already outlined the fix. When I have problems with drivers on a windows machine the answer is almost always re-install windows. For me that is less then ideal.
I haven't found that to be the case. We build machines, reinstall OSes, upgrade OSes; by and large wireless 'just works' in these cases with Windows. The pre-install is not a special case here.
