"No driver issues on Linux Mint. Not sure what you are talking about, can you be more specific or are you just trolling?"
Seriously? We're not on consoles here where everyone is running the same hardware. I don't think you know what drivers are... I chose not to elaborate as not to scare people away from Linux. If you read beyond this point, a word of caution, I've had a little to drink, and I tend to ramble. Well:
It is common knowledge that Linux OSes have to cope with driver issues. Hardware manufacturers focus on drivers for mainstream OSes. Recently more of them have been releasing drivers for Linux luckily. However without being open source, they need the masses to test them, otherwise issues remain.
In the last decade, I have installed a Linux distribution on nearly two dozen different computers. Easily seventy five percent have had a driver issue, while most were annoyances and did not prevent using the OS. The main issues that have come up:
A decade ago I was still on a 56k modem, no matter the Linux distribution (or computer), it was impossible to get it working. Only certain modems worked for people as there were drivers for those specifically. Eventually I learned the solution was to buy a USB 56k modem. And luckily no one is on 56k any more, so that issue essentially resolved itself (without the need to buy a USB modem).
After that the most annoying issue was getting ATI cards to work. While I had success on a few computers, it did cause enough frustration that I raged and installed Windows on others.
To skip ahead, a more recent issue that had me tearing my hair out was trying to get my discrete graphics working on my laptop a few years ago. Eventually I managed to get the ATI graphics working, but was unable to switch between them and the Intel graphics to save battery life while not gaming. While I know now there has been progress, it still requires googling and following instructions that most people are simply not capable of.
Now skipping ahead another few years, I decided to give Ubuntu 12.04 a shot. Which I had ruled out until Steam was released on Linux. With my 3770k, 16gb, 240ssd, gtx690, z77, I burnt a dvd and popped it in the drive.
First issue, the monitor turns off. So having had a similar issue in the past, I edited grub and added nomodeset. Voila I get about 5 seconds further before the screen freezes. Upon googling I discover it is an issue with my motherboard. I then added libata.atapi_passthru16=0 to grub. Sweet I successfully install Ubuntu. I properly edit grub to include the "libata..." line. Reboot to be sure all is well.
The desktop loads at my proper 2560x1440 resolution. Great I thought, it recognized my graphics card. I check additional drivers, however nothing is selected. I figured lets just try Steam and see if I can play a game before messing with drivers. I install Steam, login, the store page begins to load, then lightdm crashes and I am at the login screen. I switched to gdm, same problem. I google the issue, sure enough it is because of the default graphics driver (Nouveau).
So I install the latest Nvidia driver via Additional Drivers, to which it actually recognized my card. After rebooting I am back at the monitor turning off. More googling has come up empty. Removing, reinstalling all Nvidia drivers, removing Nouveau, blacklisting Nouveau, setting up xorg.conf, following 20 different guides, no solution yet. I am able to return to Nouveau at least to use my computer at the proper resolution, but no gaming yet.
Tonight I tried the latest Fedora for fun, same issue.
I am done with Windows due to the recent revelations (which we all 'knew' but without proof were happy to remain ignorant). I will figure out a solution, the problem is that the majority of people will return to what they're comfortable with when they run into small issues like these. I am not a Linux expert, not even close, and anyone switching to Linux for the first time knows less than me... Anyways, enough rambling. /bye
The Tor Project has issued a critical security advisory telling users of the onion router network to stop using Windows and switch to "live" systems if they want to remain anonymous online. The warning comes on the heels of a recently discovered attack that exploited a vulnerability on the Windows build of Firefox 17 ESR (Extended Support Release), a version of the browser customized to view websites using TOR.
