> Is editing the registry or hunting down drivers for a new version of Windows better?

When was the last time that installing a new Windows involved registry hacks. I'll admit that I haven't used Windows 7 or Vista, but I don't remember hacking the registry on Win95/98/ME/2k/XP installs.

Maybe you shouldn't get so bent out of shape so quickly. It's not like he was bashing Linux and promoting Windows/OSX. If someone gripes about Windows do you immediately rush in to make comparisons to similar problems in OSX or Linux?

With the way that Ubuntu does releases though, it's little wonder that people are scared to update. It's been a revision or two since Ubuntu pushed Xorg over to using evdev for mouse handling/etc, and my Thinkpad's TrackPoint is still only recognized as a regular mouse (no scrolling) when previous Ubuntu revisions had readily setup scrolling automatically for me.

{edit} I'll add there are multiple blog posts, and a LaunchPad report, IIRC with the fix... which the Ubuntu devs have not seen fit to include in Ubuntu, so a fresh install mean applying all of the fixes. {/edit}

With the update to Jaunty (9.04), I've had a few woes with my Atheros chipset:

1. ath5k was forced as the default out-of-the-box driver for Atheros chipsets over the previous madwifi (ath_hal) driver.

2. ath5k is flakey whenever I come home and connect to my wifi network... even when the laptop is 2 feet away from the access point. It will connect/disconnect from the network 2-5 times before deciding to stay connected.

3. If I change position in my room (with the access point in the middle), the same connect/disconnect 'settling' period still needs to happen.

4. /var/log/syslog is filled with spam from NetworkManager with messages along the lines of this (even when I see no visible disconnects in nm-applet):

'disconnect from network (mynetwork)'
'connect to network (null)'
'disconnect from network (null)'
'connect to network (mynetwork)'

5. There are unexplained slow downs in the network with the ath5k driver. For the longest time I thought that my ssh woes (random 'hangs' that last 2-6 seconds) over my network were the problem of the server, but since I've switched back to madwifi they've vanished.

6. The madwifi driver still doesn't play nice with suspend-to-ram (and maybe suspend-to-disk but I haven't tested it). It will refuse to work after waking back up (and a modprobe -r/modprobe doesn't help). Ubuntu could easily fix this... Just need to drop `SUSPEND_MODULES="$SUSPEND_MODULES ath_hal"` into a file in '/etc/pm/config.d'. This problem has existed for at least 2 or 3 revisions of Ubuntu (maybe more). The fix is on the web and on Launchpad.net, but I have yet to see the fix make its way into an official release.

If me, as someone that knows my way around Linux, can get frustrated with these issues, then how can 'Bringing Linux to the Masses' be anyway near achievement? My laptop isn't exactly a brand new laptop with highly unsupported hardware. I'm running a ThinkPad X41.

[ Oh, and did I mention that the headphone jack stops working after the second time I suspend/resume after a fresh boot? I'm perfectly willing to work with the Ubuntu devs on Launchpad, but all of my suggestions/information is apparently falling on deaf ears. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/101986 ]