NetworkManager

Is it just my misconception, or does NetworkManager suck arse?

Every so often when I start up, NetworkManager won't connect. Rebooting does not help. Using the Networking panel manually doesn't help either - the connection always fails.

I have to use the NetworkManager applet to switch to a different network, wait until it's pretty much connected, and then switch to my actual network. It's a major PITA. But this time that procedure didn't work the first time, and I spend a good 20 minutes trying to fiddle with things to get it working.

I've heard good things about Wifi Radar - I might use that instead.

I'm not dissing the developers of NetworkManager, I just don't think it's in a ready state for use at least on my machine.

In other news, some dickhead wrote in to APC magazine and complained that Linux "is not ready for the desktop" because sound stutters when you try to use it within... SHOCK HORROR... Virtual PC. Cue lots of n00b ranting. What he fails to realise is that Microsoft has a vested interest in stopping Linux from working properly on Virtual PC, and they chose to have their virtualiser emulate a Soundblaster 16 because the drivers for it are not in the Linux 2.6 kernel.

"But I want to try Linux without wiping my Windows install!". Well then, why don't you dual-boot, and that way you can see how Linux performs on a real computer without the overhead of Windows? Or you could use a half-decent virtualisation suite like Virtualbox (free download for Windows, supports Linux without any problems).

In fact, I'm going to add another item to my article "Mac OS X - Desktop Ready?", regarding this virtualisation thing. Because you cannot run Mac OS X under virtualisation from within Windows unless you download a hacked version of OS X.