Modify Colors
I just read Free Software Magazine’s article about the state of Linux hardware support. While I agree in many ways about the lack of vendor support for Linux, there is another side to the story.
Think about the last time you bought a piece of hardware that worked perfectly with Linux. If you were running Windows, you would probably have had to install some software, reboot, configure the software, and so on. On Linux, though, you probably just plugged it in and watched it work.
While more devices may work with Windows or Mac OS X, when devices do work with Linux (and more and more do), you often get a better experience than you would have with Windows.
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Oh, it’s Pogson again. You can tell this guy is sadly out of date when he brings up the “Winmodem”. Dude, it’s not 1997 anymore. Time to get a new act.
Regarding drivers, most Windows drivers provided by the manufacturer do not require a reboot unless it’s a video driver or something else that is not hot-swappable. That’s not a big deal since even hot shots like Unbutu require this when switching to the Nvidia proprietary driver.
Do most windows driver installs include extra software? Yes, but is that software required? No. It’s always some software included to give you extra functionality. A wireless scanning tool for your network card, a tweak and clock speed adjustment utility for your video card, a scanner config dialog for your scanner, a jack configuration dialog for your sound card. In Linux you usually get basic functionality only and that’s it. Which is not a surprise because only the company that makes the hardware really understands enough about the device to make fancy utilities to support it.
To argue you get a better experience simply by not having to install a driver is cutting the contest very short. Driver quality, performance, and versatility are important factors too.
That has been the case for many years with Ethernet adaptors. Slap one in and boot up with GNU/Linux. “found new hardware” with that other OS, lots of fuss.
The winmodem was another matter. Proprietary drivers with closed source. They were a good reason to move to broadband.
I am blessed not to have any cheap printers where I work. They are all PostScript, an open standard and I can print to them using several networking protocols with the same data files. GNU/Linux has that one down pat. I remember having to lie to that other OS because it had no concept of “Generic PostScript”. HAHA
OS and hardware work better together when no one is trying to mess with the competition but just get the job done.