Finally ready to move from Windoze to Unix, suggestions of flavor of Unix to use

[Adonay Felipe Nogueira]

> I have an iBUYPOWER intel core I5 computer with the Realtek 
> RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit ethernet controller, and usb:o 

According to h-node ([1][2]), at least in Trisquel 7, 6, and also in
Parabola, some of the revisions of that Ethernet controller work fine
([3]), but you have to pay attention to the *revision* ("rev" part).

> RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit ethernet controller, and usb:o 
> realtek generic usb device 802.11ac wlan adapter (usb 2), all built into 
> the motherboard.  The motherboard model is H170-pro.  Meaning I have no 

It seems that we have to try getting the wifi chipset/card/controller
information yet again, because it seems that the vendor/provider
informed you the device's "generic" name ([4]).

So, let's be more sustainability-friendly and consious consumers and
resist this temptation to use non-sustainable non-free software. :D
Follow the guide in [5] to get more information about the wifi
chipset/card/controller, and optionally other information about the rest
of the hardware.

> Does anyone have a suggestion on what flavor of Unix I should use on 
> this computer?     Wifi, networking and GnuCash are mandatory 
> requirements for me to switch.

I don't know if it's "Unix" or not --- since Unix is really old now ---,
but I highly recommend free/libre GNU+Linux system distributions such as
Trisquel, Parabola, GuixSD, and the list of recommendations goes
on... check [6][7] --- preferably the original English versions of these
pages --- for the full list. All of these distros are actively
maintained and have very helpful community.

In the next hardware/computer/cellphone/tablet/electronic you purchase,
it would be helpful to, instead of surrendering your precious money
immediatelly to the most common wrongdoers/manufacturers/providers,
contribute to a better free/libre software based world by buying a
equivalent product that is certified with Respects Your Freedom ([8]). In
this same reference, there are USB wifi dongles that you can use to
connect to wifi in case the default wifi chipset/card/controller doesn't
work.


[1] <https://h-node.org/home/index/en>.

[2] h-node is a good resource, but must be a second choice since it is
only a workaround for the underlying problem, and I would recommend it
only to be used with used/old hardware, and only if there is absolutely
no way to raise funds to buy one device listed in [8]. Also, the absense
of a device in h-node simply means that no one registered a test there,
this doesn't mean that it doesn't work.

[3]
<https://h-node.org/ethernetcards/view/en/315/Realtek-Semiconductor-Co---Ltd--RTL8111-8168-8411--OR-RTL8111-8168B--PCI-Express-Gigabit-Ethernet-Controller--rev-06->.

[4] These "generic" names are mostly to tell about capabilities, but
hide the possible trouble of having to install non-free software, it's a
way that these pesky providers found to lure people into not thinking on
the software freedom of those computer programs that people are using,
which is bad, because once people are lured into buying this stuff, they
tend to just accept the next step of installing crap because "we already
bought it, and are already here anyway".

[5] <https://h-node.org/wiki/page/en/Discover-your-hardware>.

[6] <https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-distros.html>.

[7] <https://www.gnu.org/distros/free-non-gnu-distros.html>.

[8] <https://www.fsf.org/resources/hw/endorsement/respects-your-freedom>
or <https://www.fsf.org/ryf>.

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