However with Ubuntu it's a crapshoot that anything you plug in will work, and there's really no guarantee that there's a driver for it, but in the off chance there is a driver it's going to be a good one."
I would've agreed with you around the era of Ubuntu 5, when I first tried it. However, for all the hardware I have, Linux these days does a better job of supporting it. On my laptop, Ubuntu 10 identified every device out-of-the-box and works perfectly. On Windows (admittedly, Windows 7 rather than XP) I still have devices in the Device Manager that seemingly no amount of investigation can get drivers for.
I think this says a lot about the world of device drivers: nobody can do it right. Some people will have good experiences with Windows; some will have good experiences with Linux. Bickering with anecdotal and subjective evidence does nothing to solve the problem.
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[_] If they're so clever, they can durn well manage themselves!
Regarding them managing themselves: Why not? http://lifehacker.com/5646277/manage-cables-with-an-old-coiled-phone-cord
However with Ubuntu it's a crapshoot that anything you plug in will work, and there's really no guarantee that there's a driver for it, but in the off chance there is a driver it's going to be a good one."
I would've agreed with you around the era of Ubuntu 5, when I first tried it. However, for all the hardware I have, Linux these days does a better job of supporting it. On my laptop, Ubuntu 10 identified every device out-of-the-box and works perfectly. On Windows (admittedly, Windows 7 rather than XP) I still have devices in the Device Manager that seemingly no amount of investigation can get drivers for.
I think this says a lot about the world of device drivers: nobody can do it right. Some people will have good experiences with Windows; some will have good experiences with Linux. Bickering with anecdotal and subjective evidence does nothing to solve the problem.