I recently got a laptop because I needed mobility in and outside my home. So, I bought a Dell laptop with Ubuntu pre-installed after years of using Windows. I was very excited.
My enthusiasm deteriorated very quickly upon discovering that the wireless did not work out of the box which immediately negated the main reason for my purchase.
I am someone who writes code for a living (and for fun) and I found the experience disappointing and frustrating. Imagine how your average non-technical consumer would feel.
Similar situation here. Try using the latest modwifi drivers , the drivers in the 9.04 distro did not work for me. (sorry I forgot how I did that, but the info was easy to find).
No, it probably won't "work" out of the box, meaning that it requires configuration. With a fresh install, typically the first thing I do is plug in an ethernet cable, download all available updates (including wifi drivers and other software if needed) and then configure the wifi. I did this when I bought a netbook preinstalled with Linux, but I might not have needed to install anything, I probably just didn't find the "switch" at first.
My enthusiasm deteriorated very quickly upon discovering that the wireless did not work out of the box which immediately negated the main reason for my purchase.
I am someone who writes code for a living (and for fun) and I found the experience disappointing and frustrating. Imagine how your average non-technical consumer would feel.