Ubuntu Wireless
Using Ubuntu 7.10 to connect to wireless networks has been great. Linux for many years has only been for the geeks. I truly feel that the only thing that was holding linux back was the problems with installing Linux on laptops. You either had problems with screen resolution, your touch pad and or your wireless network card. The only people who could get the wireless portion of Linux to work would need to have command line skills and be able to either program the driver you self your find one in some obscure website forum. Then after many hours of work the wireless adapter would be active but they could only then connect to WEP encrypted networks not WPA of WPA2.
Now with Ubuntu 7.10, I installed it on three different laptop models with great success. Screen resolution, touch pad and the card were all functioning by almost default. Activating the wireless card took one extra step but Ubuntu prompted me automatically on how to install the drivers asking to enable the third party restricted drivers. There was no command line needed and no searching obscure forums for bad advice.
Linux is great but Ubuntu wireless is just awesome. I had Unbutu installed and running in under 15 minutes. That means drivers, and default apps with me connected to a wireless network. If you install Windows xp or Windows Vista you will need 30 minutes for it to load the base operating system then you will need to find all the drivers and then install you basic apps, hello two hours later you might me ready to work. 15 minutes or 2 or more hours you make the call.
After you get your Ubuntu 7.10 connected to your wireless network you can have access to all the thousands of free applications that the Linux community has put together. I don't know how many people who I ran into that say that the only reason they didn't like Linux is because it didn't run on their laptop correctly. Don't wait Ubuntu 7.10 runs great and will connect to your network by default.
Learn wireless networking skillz from the wireless ninja http://www.wirelessninja.com - The wireless ninja will show you how unwire your wired life.
Source: www.articledashboard.com
