Landed (or stepped) in Linux - OpenSuSE 11.3 on my Alienware Area 51

I threw away Windows and loaded openSuSE 11.3 on one of my laptops (Alienware Area51 that I purchased in 2003).  Yes, you heard right, a 7 year old laptop.

Linux loaded fine, ran great, except for the WIRELESS support.  It took me a few nights of gcc compiling, kernel module loading and blacklisting, but I finally got the Ralink rt35xxsta driver working in OpenSuSE 11.3.  This was to get a non-supported Lynksys/Cisco AE1000 USB WiFi device working.  It seems to be OK, but every now and then it asks to re-associate with the AP.  And it asks for my root password when I boot.

But I am not complaining here.  Stories of Linux/Wireless woes are legion.  I am actually one of the lucky ones.