Here’s an update on my Linux rant:
The problem seems to be that some applications resolve any URL to the IP “1.0.0.0″, which obviously won’t work. After some surfing, I found that IPV6 might be an offender, which I duly fixed in the /etc/modprobe.d/aliases file. However, that only addressed the problem for a few applications (such as firefox).
After some further surfing, I found mentions of manually changing the DNS entries in /etc/resolv.conf to those of my ISP. I didn’t try it. Why? Because even if it works, it simply isn’t good enough, it is a temporary ugly hack and workaround. I use my laptop on the go and at work, so getting it to work fine at home just isn’t enough, it is as if I wouldn’t have the laptop in the first place.
Luckily I have an older laptop with XP on it to use at work for now, which gives me a little more time to tinker with my primary laptop. But the whole networking issue is annoying. I really do want to switch to Linux, and I would probably say I am an “intermediary user” (I’ve used Gentoo in the past without any problems), so these problems really show that Linux still has some growing up to do on the desktop/laptop.
