Lost in the Land of Linux - November 9

Well, the quest continues. I am still lost a goose, but something about Linux has me hooked and I'm determined to give it a try. My friend Jason, ever so kindly, commented on my last blog and suggested that I look for "Linux for Dummies" at Barnes and Noble. Well, Jason, I'm even smarter than that...I looked for it at the library. It was not at my branch, so I settled for Moving to Linux: Kiss the Blue Screen of Death Goodbye. I got to start reading it already...but I'm getting ahead of myself.


After helping Amanda finish her homework tonight, I headed out with two cards...my library card and a $25 Best Buy gift card. I was going to the library to look for a Linux book and to Best Buy to see if I could find a wireless network card to that will work on a Linux laptop. Although I'm lost, I do have this Linux laptop up and running with Ubuntu, and I can stretch out the network cable and blog from this computer in my living room. I thought it might be nice to do my blogging or Linux Googling without being tied to the network cable, so I decided to look for the wireless network card. When I asked the guy at Best Buy about a card for a Linux laptop, his only answer was "Let's ask the Geek Squad" that is set up there at the store. They showed me to a Buffalo card they said would run on Linux even though the box did not mention it. The card was $29, so using my gift card, I only paid $7 with tax.

When I got home, the first thing I did was go to Buffalo's web site and see if the card did indeed run on Linux. I saw no mention of it, so I called the 24 hour support line. During the 45 minutes that I waited to speak to a person (!), I did some research online and determined that the card does run in Linux. I also had time to start reading my Linux library book.

At Best Buy and now at Buffalo tech support, I found out just what a small crowd this Linux group is. Tech support told me that the card would run in Linux, but they don't offer Linux support. As my friend Meagan would say, "Sorry for your luck!".

So I read what I could online, found nothing I could understand and finally decided to plug the thing in and just see what would happen. The short answer is NOTHING!! Right now, I can't even get the power light to come on the card, let alone try to figure out how to configure the thing. I'm not even sure if Ubuntu/Linux is reading my PCMCIA slot.

I've had about all of this I can take for the night, at least as far as the network card goes. I may read a bit more of Moving to Linux, but then I'm putting that down too and relaxing with A More Elite Soldier (a book my friend Stan bought me which I am enjoying and hope to finish this weekend). So I'm preparing to leave the Land of Linux and will keep you updated on my journey.