[ShadowAce]

...he version we had just bought on disk had already been updated and we had to do some initial downloading to bring it up to date.

That's pretty typical. Even Windows has its patches that users should DL before using.

I suspect that proprietary hardware may have been to blame in most cases, but it was still an issue.

I suspect that as well from your description. I haven't been very happy with any of those brands. In fact, I've stayed away from Compaq since the day I couldn't re-install Windows from its own recovery disk due to hardware issues.

Based on commodity hardware, though, Red Hat (and Fedora) installs pretty much automatically. I've found that it's usually easier to install RH and Fedora than it is to install Windows.

[Crusher138]

I would guess that if you were building a computer from scratch and had a list of Linux compatible hardware, it would be a much smoother install. Still, there are issues with popular hardware, cameras and MP3 players come to mind, that would frustrate a novice after the initial installation.

The Linux community does seems to be addressing these issues, but the general hardware manufacturers seem to be slow in providing Linux drivers, if they provide them at all.

[Crusher138]

I would guess that if you were building a computer from scratch and had a list of Linux compatible hardware, it would be a much smoother install. Still, there are issues with popular hardware, cameras and MP3 players come to mind, that would frustrate a novice after the initial installation.

The Linux community does seems to be addressing these issues, but the general hardware manufacturers seem to be slow in providing Linux drivers, if they provide them at all.