[Wylug-help] Fw: Re: Installing a speedtouch modem

[Dave Fisher]

On Thu, Nov 13, 2003 at 08:49:46PM +0000, Steve King wrote:
> Rik did a good talk on this earlier on in the year
>
> http://www.wylug.org.uk/talks/2003/03/speedtouch.html
>
> I don't know about SUSE, but I believe that the stingray usb modem "just
> works" in recent mandrakes. I've always used it in conjunction with a
> smoothwall box where it does "just work".
>
> However, I'd suggest you dump the usb thing and get an adsl router!
> (says he, who is now using his old usb stingray cos his adsl router
> broke after a day's use!)

I looks like Rik's talk would be a bit too technical for Steve E.

Like everyone else, I'd strongly advise Windows escapees against even
attempting to configure an ADSL modem that doesn't just work
automatically with a newbie friendly distro.

Even the more expensive routers are cheap by comparison with the time
and knowledge required to overcome the problems with tricky modems
(blame the hardare manufacturers, not Linux).

I would also warn most Windows-to-Linux converts that they should not
underestimate the extent to which Microsoft have shielded them from the
complexities, choices and the conflicts of interest that real computing
involves.

Many things 'just work' in Windows, because Microsoft has the power to
get away with running rough-shod over hardware and software
compatibility standards ... and partly,  because they make it virtually
impossible for Windows users to interact with packages and devices which
are not Microsoft approved.

In short, if you expect to be able to pick up Linux quickly, and
immediately work in the way that you are used to on WinXP, you might has
well give up now and save yourself the time, money and grief.

With the possible exception of OS X, Unix/Linux is an extremely broad
and literate computing environment.  It takes a considerable amount of
study to become fluent in most of its vocabularies, grammar and
literature.

It is possible to work in the Windows style on Linux, but most
experienced Linux users find it hard to advise newbies on such matters,
because they rarely use the Windows-style GUI applications provided by
Gnome and KDE. These consitute only one tiny part of a much larger Linux
landscape, and the best people to guide you through them are often
slightly more advanced newbies, i.e. people who have already wasted a
lot of their own time trying out the range of GUI tools that are
available in a particular field.

We are still some way off the time when any Linux destop can provide the
singular, consistent, narrow and safe environment that Microsoft does.
If you really want to learn Linux, you have to commit yourself to years
of learning and tinkering.

Dave