Makes me wonder if Linux will ever be ready for the common desktop, not to mention laptop

[Richard Bronosky]

I'm not trying to flame bait here.  I'm just expressing my frustration
with trying top get both of these conditions met: a) ability to use an
external display on my all Intel Thinkpad.  b) ability to play some
form of video at any size.

It's so frustrating that I am engineer and I can't understand the
relationship between kernel modules, drivers, xorg, xrandr, desktop
environment, and the window manager.  It seems that in order to use
Linux effectively on a desktop, this is perquisite knowledge.  I don't
mind learning it, but i can't find a concise source for this
information.

I just wonder if the public at large will ever be able to use Linux.

So, in order to do what I want with my computer I need to use the
bleeding edge stuff.  That's fine, but I can't experience any down
time.  So, I can't blindly install crap, or follow a hodge podge of
howtos.  I need to know how to get xorg, xrandr, and the Intel drivers
working and how to rollback if there are problems.

Where can I find this info?

-- 
.!# RichardBronosky #!.