Re: Is all this complexity really necessary?
It might be that the live CD uses a better version of Discover?
It might be that the live CD uses a better version of Discover?
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Re: Is all this complexity really necessary?
Just to throw in a comment on modems. I'm one of those poor college students. Actually majoring in electrical and computer engineering. Classes are horribly skewed towards windows XP and nothing else. Macs are computers too I say, and they ignore me. Yadda yadda. But, being poor and wanting to learn more about computers, a nice free distro of linux is nice for me. But, I also live in a rural area. Dial-up is my only option and it's typically 24kps at that. A college professor once confidently announced to the class that "no one" had dial-up anymore and that it wasn't a concern for the class. It is nice to have support for them sometimes. It's like CD trays. They're selling computers without floppies now, but sometimes they're damn handy. Still, I'm trying to make a go of linux. I'm just getting the feeling I'll be strapped into windows for awhile. Unless I move to a city, and well... that not's going to happen
But still, the support of the linux community has been a big help so far. Even if I don't have the lexicon of acronyms down myself. I can't blame them. sudo is a perfect acronym once you realize what it means. It's exactly how I tend to name things myself. 
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Re: Is all this complexity really necessary?
Welcome to the Linux community. Don't feel handicapped by your low bandwidth connection. Linus Torvalds probably didn't have any more than that when he started the Linux project and look where that ended up. He was also a college student when he started.
In addition, even a 24 kbps connection is enoough to order a CD. If you go to someplace like Budget Linux CDs or any of the places that advertise on Distrowatch, you can get just about any distro out there at $2 a CD. Some stores will even throw in postage.
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Re: Is all this complexity really necessary?
Hello! I don't know how much help I'm going to be, because I used Linux (Slackware) for about three years in the mid-nineties, and Mandrake (now Mandriva) for about two years 99-00, and am now back in Linux world again hopefully done trying distros and happy with Kubuntu. So I have some tricks in the bag. I do understand about being stuck, though. Recently, I found that my Ethernet-based Internet connection was hard for some distros to find, and that one that did find it would lose it when I recompiled the kernel even if I didn't alter settings pertaining to networking! Oh well. Anyway, about modems, what I have to say is,
>> get a brand name <<
Hayes and USRobotics. Back in the nineties a "V-dot-Everything" from USR was a fine modem. I used it in Slackware and Mandrake with no problem. I don't think they make that model but they are still in business:
http://www.usr.com/products/analog/p-56k-menu.asp
Someone told you that you'll have to do some configuring, which wouldn't surprise me, but USR is good hardware. It's more expensive but my philosophy was, that which is the computer's lifeline has to work well. YMMV! Best wishes, and let me assure you that it's great fun to work with this Unix-like operating system.
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