Well hate to break it to you but that's how ALL OSes deal with CD-ROM installs and replacements (unless its external, but that's a different story). Not trying to diss Linux but buddy, I have never had trouble with any of my Windows boxes taking CD-ROM drives right off the bat without any reboots or anything. The only Windows version that would have even the most remote of chance of having trouble with it would have been 95. On the other hand I have been playing with Linux for about 4 or 5 years and good solid plug and play has only been available (from what I have seen) on Linux for about a year. Up until about RedHat 7 or 8 have I seen any real no fuss plug and play with device variety on any of my systems. Before 7 my system was pretty much hosed if I had to change any major components. Linux is making its way to the top and seems to be progressing quicker than Windows in the last few years but I am sorry to say this... There are just some things WINDOWS is still BETTER at. Course there are also some things that Linux is much better at than Windows but in some cases its merely circumstantial. In the case of security, yes Linux is better, but then again the user base of good and bad people is MUCH larger for Windows so the frequency of security breaks is in turn going to be more frequent (kinda like the larger the city, the more crime you will see). As Linux users become more and more common, so will the malicious users of it and then so will viruses and security threats become more common. In the case of being just downright user friendly, Windows takes the cake here. Sure its nowhere near as customizable, and sure it can't be tweaked or stripped as easily, but when it comes to the bottom line Windows just reacts better to the user presence. Windows XP is the perfect example. In most cases, within a few seconds of plugging something in it pretty much installs it for me, unless it's a rare case that it doesn't have suitable drivers for the device. Try the same thing in RH8 and I have to reboot and go through clunky prompts that are not straight-forward and don't actually explain what will happen between each option. Now I have yet to try RH9 (because I don't have a free system at this time) but I doubt its improvements are that drastic, considering its quick introduction after the upgrade to 8. Another example of those clunky menus and install process is using RH8 on my laptop, when I decided to disconnect my USB mouse, when I rebooted it started asking me about keeping the device, updating the profile, removing it, etcetera, I just wanted it to keep the driver for future use so I selected that option and I lost my touchpad completely and was unable to use the mouse unless I had the USB mouse connected. Also if I installed RH8 with the USB mouse on I would have to reinstall just to be able to get it to use the touchpad. However when they both did work, they worked great and at the same time. I like its new program manager, which still needs work but is a major improvement. It still gets tiring when you install a program and have no idea where on the file system it installed to, no links to it, and not even being sure which file to run it with. That's a major pain. In all I am not a die-hard Windows fan, nor am I a major Linux player either. Both are good operating systems, and I really hope that Linux enters the mainstream PC user market, and it can, but it is still not ready for the everyday user. I am in tech support and I get enough retarded calls on Windows machines, I don't even want to think of what nightmare it would be to support ordinary users on Linux. The phone calls would be never-ending. Currently Windows has its place for the mainstream market, its slowly getting booted from the server market which is good, that is not where it belongs with all its problems, that's where Linux comes in. Linux is a great server. I love the versatility and the power, but just like Windows is not right for servers, Linux is still not right for most end-users. Keep an open mind, open up to the possibilities! There are always light and dark of all things. -Patrick -----Original Message----- From: owner-kclug@marauder.illiana.net [mailto:owner-kclug@marauder.illiana.net] On Behalf Of Jim Herrmann Sent: Tuesday, April 08, 2003 12:41 AM To: KCLUG Subject: Never ceases to amaze It never ceases to amaze me when I put in a new piece of hardware and boot linux. At least, when I replace a piece of hardware. No drivers to install, no hassle, no reboot two times to unistall the old hardware and twice more to install the new. It's times like these that I really feel justified in tumbing my nose at the winblows die hards. This is plug and play baby! My CD-RW has been acting flakey for about a month now, and it was getting worse. So, I went down to Best Buy and got one of those $20-after-rebate burners. I came home, shutdown, took out my old one, stuck in my new one, booted up, fired up CD-bake oven, and burned an ISO. No muss, no fuss. Is this a great OS or what?! BTW, if you go buy one of those $20 burners, be very careful on the rebate forms. There are two of them, clearly designed to confuse, so that if you muck it up, you don't get your $50 bucks back. Just a warning. I was being very careful, and almost stuck the original UPC in the wrong envelope. Doh! I caught it in time, but I was thinking how easy it would be for an ever so slightly less attentive person, myself included, to screw this one up. I think I have it right now. I should probably check one more time before I seal the envelopes. Anyway, thanks for listening to my glow. :-) Peace, Jim Herrmann