[Tfug] More "Millie" stff

[Tim Ottinger]

I bought the thinkpad T42 because of its reputation in the linux community.
I installed XUbuntu in rather a lot less than 3 hours, including my favorite
apps.  It doesn't have to be awful, and you don't always have to customize
for hardware.   Personally, I know very little about drivers and config, and
have never customized a kernel.  I've not had five-hour installs because I
won't do them. I refuse.  I don't want to know that much about my hardware.
I am a programmer, not a sysadmin (though I have more cause to learn admin
these days). I think that the improved installers (especially netinst) and
the choice to stay away from cutting-edge hardware is the trick.

If my ethernet card isn't recognized, I put in a different one.  I don't
fight with it.  I just don't use winprinters and winmodems and the like.

I also stick with Debian-based distros because I don't want to deal with rpm
and I can stick with one toolset.  I put my friends on debian-based distros
so I have a chance of helping them.

Because of those things, I don't tend to have the troubles you're talking
about.