Oh, I just mean that some things work really smoothly - it's not just a basket case. I didn't have to install or modify anything with the 3G modem and the netwo

Oh, I just mean that some things work really smoothly - it's not just a basket case. I didn't have to install or modify anything with the 3G modem and the network manager just took care of it (and prefers a wifi connection if one is live), which was surprising. This is an option that the biggest prestige laptop maker doesn't even offer. Debian in particular won't work OOTB on most computers because their philosophy excludes proprietary drivers in the base install... and wifi loves proprietary drivers. That's a 'Debian-philosophy-specific' issue, not a 'linux' issue.