Things have changed a great deal since 1982. These days, having a computer is almost synonymous with having access to the internet. In truth, a computer that cannot access the internet today is almost quaint. Sure the average Linux distribution comes with enough software to run an entire office out of the box, but if you can’t communicate with your customers via email, fill in forms at online websites, or look up information on the web you’re SOL.
For the home user, instant messaging has become almost as much of a “critical app” as email, family members are sharing photos and videos online, and much of the younger set is blogging or otherwise keeping friends up to date on their activities at various social networking sites like Twitter, MySpace, or Facebook daily.

While you can certainly buy a new PC with Linux pre-installed and configured (hopefully such that all your shiny new hardware is working properly), installing Linux on a PC that shipped with Windows will invariably require downloading drivers from a manufacturer’s FTP site or scouring tech forums for some clue about how to go about getting your hardware to work well, just work, or even be recognized at all. While there are still many reasons to have a PC even without internet access, getting Linux installed on it at all may actually require it.

For laptops, and an increasing number of PCs in environments where wired ethernet isn’t possible or is just too much of a hassle to set up, folks are routinely using wireless cards to communicate with a wireless router in order to connect to the internet. This is presenting some daunting challenges for Linux adoption at least among the home user crowd who might be looking at Linux to provide some fresh life for their older hardware. When dealing with laptops or PCs the problem is generally the same except that on laptops the wireless card may already be built in, though its true that many older laptops didn’t come with wireless at all. Cheap wireless cards sold in consumer electronics stores everywhere seem to work right out of the box for Windows users on PCs and laptops alike, but almost always present some kind of problem for a Linux user. While techies know that this is just a function of the fact that the companies are churning out Windows drivers for their hardware and keeping those drivers updated regularly, the average home user may not realize this until *after* they bring their shiny new wireless card home and pop it into their machine. Once they’ve plunked down $40 to $60 on a card, they just want to pop it in and have it work. Unfortunately, since Linux is not officially supported by nearly any manufacturer, it often does not - and for whatever reason if the user does not have another method to reach the internet, either through a wired connection to the router or another machine already connected to the internet, they will be unable to access the documentation and help forums they might be able to leverage to get this new hardware functioning. I see this as a major stumbling block to broader Linux adoption.

If by now you’ve guessed that I’ve recently had some run-ins with this problem, you’re right! Futzing around with getting a Linksys PCMCIA wireless card to operate at all in a Thinkpad (eventually succeeding with bwcutter) and a Belkin F5D7000 PCI card to even be recognized at all in an old Dell PC (also eventually succeeding with ndiswrapper) both under Ubuntu 8.04 was enough to convince me that unless the average user is very lucky, getting to the internet wirelessly in Linux is likely to be a problem. My eventual success was bittersweet because the only way I got these devices to work at all was to use the proprietary Windows drivers in a way that wasn’t intended by the developers. Some users of Linux would balk at the thought of using proprietary drivers at all, preferring to be completely free of “non-open” software. My wireless devices still don’t work natively under Linux, and as long as users can get them to work in this manner, what incentive is there for manufacturers to create a native Linux driver anyway?

It wasn’t my intention to explain the reasons for this problem - the constantly changing chipsets used by wireless card manufacturers, the entrenched Windows monopoly, the relative “newness” of the technology in general (as compared to ethernet), but rather to point out a weakness in Linux folks should be aware of. Before running out to buy a wireless device, check for Linux compatibility! Some chipsets are better supported by the two methods I mentioned. Don’t plunk down good money on hardware that won’t work at all in Linux, even if you’re running Windows today. If you decide to try Linux in the future you’ll wish you had.