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Neil Williams wrote: > Nice to see the reverse for once - so many still think that Windows is > easy to install and everything else is hard. It just isn't true. > Windows *can* be very easy, but then so can Linux if you just want a standard install without any non-standard hardware. Both can be a pain if the hardware isn't supported by the OS's own drivers/modules. To put the other side, I just reinstalled Windows on my desktop and it took under 2 hours including all the drivers for the motherboard and hardware. The main aspect with any reinstall, for any OS, is preparation. Viv was hampered by Acer not providing any XP drivers and I can sympathise with the menace that must have been, whereas in my case they were all in the same place so it was just a question of disk swapping until all the 'Unknown' icons disappeared in Device Manager. Linux can be just as hard (or easy) to install - it all depends on whether you have the additional drivers/modules to hand that your hardware requires. As an example, it took me weeks to get wireless working on my old Compaq laptop because the Cardbus slot wasn't supported natively in Linux at the time and then I had to get MADWifi working. To put it in a 'real world' context: Consider if you had to hang a picture up and had two types of hook. You have the screws for one to hand, but you'd have to go out and buy the others. That doesn't make one better than the other, simply that the preparation for one was better than the other. Kind regards, Julian -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html