what is the easiest linux release to install?

[Thomas D. Ward]

Hello.
I think as far as ease of installation Slackware 9 would be the easiest as
it comes with speakup out of the box, but there are many things I find
lacking in the Slackware distro.
For example Red Hat allows you to start, restart, and stop services by
issuing a simple command called service. In Slackware you need to edit some
files which given the choice I would take the service command any day of the
week.
Red Hat comes with lots of tools that simplify the setup and configuration
of applications where Slackware requires editing several files.
However, given that you have a 1.5 GB drive for Linux Slackware would be
allot easier to squeeze on that drive than Red Hat. It is easier to select
packages in Slackware and get a small installation than is the Red Hat
distro. Again though, it comes down to practice.
However, as for your wireless network card if it is in source you may need
to recompile a kernel no matter what distro you use. If it is a compiled
module and your kernel supports loading older modules then you can probably
get by with dropping it in with the other modules and loading it with
modprobe.