RH recommends using Windows?

[Jason Montleon]

I don't buy the hardware excuse anymore.  Recently I was installing RedHat
Linux 9 (I think it was 9 though I suppose it could have been 8) and Windows
2000 Server (this was before 2003 Server was out) on a few PowerEdge 2650's,
and RedHat was loading and detecting the PERC (think it was a 3/DI?)
controller without the hassle of driver disks, etc.  This was not true of
2000.  To go one step further Dell had an excellent article in their
magazine about running headless PowerEdge servers with Linux.  You could get
to BIOS, Grub Boot Loader, and Linux all over a null modem cable.  Very
slick.

That's on the server side.  When I went home and installed RedHat 9 it
picked up my Epson Perfection 1250 scanner, my Epson C40UX printer worked
without downloading drivers, and my Canon Powershot S30 digital camera
worked just fine.  All of these without going and having to download
drivers.  Everyone of the three devices I just listed requires a driver
download for Windows XP.

And for the record the Netgear WG511 wireless card does require a download
for both, and so do the NVidia and ATI graphics cards.

Now to be fair, the particular version of RedHat came out AFTER Windows XP
(correct me if I'm making untrue statements), and Windows in its next
rendition (2003... Longhorn...) will no doubt include support out of the box
for [some of] these devices.

My only point to this long winded email is that both now have hardware that
they require drivers for and/or do not support, and that which they support
out of the box.  It's probably a fairly even line too.

Jason