> That is indeed what I do as soon as I run into anything "esoteric" (that is, anything > that a mac or windows PC can handle effortlessly but which chokes my linux machines > HARD). Effortlessly? Like I said the only cases for me are when DHCP is off, which I don't see often - and how effortless can your "octogenarian rocket scientist" dad configure Windows or Mac for static IP with custom Gateway, custom DNS-Server? Yeah, that's what I thought. But I do get your point. Of course those cases should be solvable in the GUI as well, and from what I hear that's where things are going (yes, yes, linux is lagging behind in this regard). But my comment was in response to claims that "it doesn't work at all" and "network-manager keeps preventing me from doing this and that". I never claimed this was newbie-proof solution. Or that it shouldn't be improved upon. > Linux wireless works perfectly in some subset of configurations (that happily > includes most corporate and Starbucks-type rigs) but, in my personal experience, does > not come close to mac or windows wireless. Ack. (Though, I admit I did enjoy reading your over the top comment. ;))