Every couple of months I keep posting the same links to a couple of different mailing lists and forums.

One of the problems that new users encounter with open source operating systems is that some hardware is not well supported. The problem is not with the developers of these open systems, but with the manufacturers themselves.

To make a long story short, there are no longer any good reasons for crappy or non-existent drivers. They do not even have to write the driver themselves. There is an entire project with developers sitting idle who can help sort out this issue. The infrastructure is in place to make these drivers happen. All that is needed is a little help from the manufacturer.

The take home message is that if you have hardware that is not supported by Linux, then the fault is with the manufacturer. Either they do not understand how little this will cost them, or they are conciously choosing not to participate, either way they are probably a company to avoided regardless of the OS you choose.

When contacting your hardware manufacturer, point them to the following two links.

http://www.kroah.com/log/linux/free_drivers.html
and
http://www.linuxdriverproject.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/WebHome