Wireless newbies -- just try NetworkManager!

[Timothy Murphy]

John W. Linville wrote:

> Clearly you missed the entire point of the original post.  Let me
> spell it out for you:
> 
> IF YOU NEED WIRELESS AND YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT TO TRY, THEN TRY
> NetworkManager FIRST.

There is no need to scream.
I understood you perfectly well the first time.

But I don't think that is the correct way to give advice in the Linux world.

To start with, I imagine most people reading such advice
would already have tried to set up WiFi,
since that is probably the first thing laptop owners do,
particularly if they are coming from Windows.

In my opinion, it would be more polite to say something 
along the following lines:
"If you haven't already tried to set up WiFi,
I suggest you try NM first.
If you have already tried other methods, which didn't work,
they may have created files or started programs 
which will interfere with NM, so:

1. Make sure wpa_supplicant is not running.

2. Check that the file ifcfg-<if> in the /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/
does not contain the line ONBOOT=no .

3...

4...
"

> I'm sorry I offended you by trying to make things easier for people.
> Apparently the Spirit of Linux demands that I explore every option
> and explain every detail whether or not most people care.  I'll try
> to do better.

You haven't "offended" me.
If you really want to help, I suggest that after recommending NM
you say something along the lines, 
"If this doesn't work, then ..."

-- 
Timothy Murphy  
e-mail (<80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland