Depends on what you mean by "out of the box". If you buy a Ubuntu computer (from, say, System76) then yes, it works out of the box (in the literal sense) as that is their business.

No device drivers just magically work. Someone has to test and ensure that the work; when you buy a computer they do that for you. When you install an operating system on a pre-owned computer your chances get smaller. Most manufacturers upgrade their drivers to ensure they work with the latest version of Windows (and Apple does the same for its computers).

No OS has complete hardware compatibility "out of the box". That's an insane request, of course. So if you want to compare apples to Apple, you have to compare a preinstalled linux box, not some computer you pulled out of your base with 2 inches of dust on top.

Look I get the technical reasons why, but as a computer user I don't care. I want someone else to have already done that work for me. Why would I make such an insane request?

Because there are other solutions available where that laziness is allowed.

I used to agree with you, but it's just not that simple. If I compare the amount of time I have spent trying to get some piece of hardware that should "just work" in Windows, to the amount of time I have spent trying to get some open source driver working with a similar piece of hardware on Linux, they are really not all that different.

When Windows 7 x64 came out, the Windows hardware advantage pretty much went away. You may be lucky enough to have your old peripherals just work, but chances are good that something will break.

So no matter what OS you choose, you need to do research, buy the appropriate hardware, etc.

Now, that said, I can almost guarantee that that old scanner in the bottom of the closet which stopped working with Windows 2000, will absolutely work just fine with the most current Linux kernel.

Such as?

All major wifi chips now have open source drivers, so wifi will work out of the box for everybody as of 2.6.39: http://www.h-online.com/open/features/Kernel-comment-Perseve...

Current versions of Linux (Ubuntu 11.04 etc) use 2.6.37, though.

All integrated sound solutions have open source drivers.

The only problem spot is graphics drivers.

You're more likely to run into device driver problems upgrading to Vista/7 than you are upgrading to Linux. (although there the problems are older printers and other peripherals that significantly predate Vista).

ok good to know. I'll give it another shot then sometime soon.

For the most part, my most recent Dell laptop (Purchased 11/2010) wifi and sound worked great out of the box... actually my last 3 computers that's worked fine (speaking in the realm of Ubuntu)

Suspend / Hibernate still pretty flakey IMO :(

I used to do the same thing. I was always disappointed. And then I got mad because I just wasted several hours of my life.