"I recently read this article about how the Linux device driver project needs more work to do. I pondered this for awhile, and came to a realization. While Linux still does indeed lack drivers for some hardware, I believe that the lack of drivers is no longer the largest technological obstacle to Linux adoption. The thing Linux needs to focus mostly on now is completeness, not quantity, of hardware support." Read on.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2007-02-17
Not a bit of it. If a site such as "OSNews" were to simply hold different Operating Systems to the same standards of criticism, then I would be happy.
I cannot see any point in criticizing Linux for an area where it actually leads the pack. There is a far wider variety of supported hardware and better quality drivers for Linux that there is for either OSX or Vista.
Why should OSNews continue to post topics which hint towards the exact opposite of reality? That is, assuming no hidden agenda is at work ... which more and more one suspects to be an invalid assumption.
Edited 2007-10-28 04:58
Member since:2005-11-10
Member since:2006-07-15
Member since:2007-06-16
I have run Vista since it came out. No drivers problems for me. It runs every type of hardware I have right out of the box, and if not, the drivers are there fo it. You cannot say that about your religion. I do not know where you get the information if you do not use the OS?
Like someone else said to you, the article was about Linux not Vista. Can you stay focus, or did you forgot your meds this morning?
Another thing for you Linux fan. I have used Linux enough, Open Suse, Ubuntu, to know it is not ready for me or prime time. So why don't you listen to rational people like the writer of the article that is trying to make your OS(religion) better, instead you freaks always critized anyone that tries to improve your religion.
Member since:2006-03-12
"Another thing for you Linux fan. I have used Linux enough, Open Suse, Ubuntu, to know it is not ready for me or prime time. So why don't you listen to rational people like the writer of the article that is trying to make your OS(religion) better, instead you freaks always critized anyone that tries to improve your religion."
Religion...thats a really strange term. Its even stranger when you consider that Linux almost completely controlled by self-interested business.
The reality is this is almost a cornerstone article, Linux almost ubiquitous hardware support, but drivers are not always *feature* complete or rely on complicated fixes, and examples of this are *everywhere*, but quantity and quality of the drivers as a whole are excellent. Its not an article that says XXX hardware doesn't work in Linux its saying XXX hardware needs X feature supported. Thats a massive change of opinion in the last couple of years.
The bottom line is you have you used Linux *today* the latest release candidate is out 2.6.24-rc1, and I will tell you a whole wealth of features will be added to current drivers, and a new crop of features it has the largest diff in the history of Linux, and includes many new drivers most being DVR and wireless ones. Its not perfect; There is lots of room for improvement, but come every 2.5 months you know its a little closer to being perfect.
Member since:2005-07-06
The thing Vista needs to focus mostly on now is completeness and quantity of hardware support. Oh, and getting rid of the numerous "users-don't-want-it" features such as DRM and WGA and activation wouldn't hurt either.
So what you're doing is comparing bad with bad. According to your logic, because Windows Vista is 'crappier' than Linux, therefore better.
The issue isn't about the issues you have with Windows Vista and your mouth foaming hatred of Microsoft, it has to supporting hardware, not only supporting the core functionality, but fully supporting it.
Take my HP laptop for example (now since sold, and I'm a happy Mac user (again!)), it has a webcam, it uses a firmware which is uploaded but is still based on the UVC specifications. I can download the driver off http://viveks.wikidot.com/ricoh-r5u870-webcam-in-linux - yes, it all works as it should, but the UVC implementation is incomplete so none of the features such as colour balancing and so forth are available - there are a list of incomplete features off linux-UVC development website.
Lets move onto the audio driver, again, its 'supported' but when I put in my ear phones, the speakers continue to play audio even though ear phones have been plugged in. The audio record is a situation of hit and miss whether it actually works - like the webcam, it all works flawlessly in Windows.
Two examples of drivers which support the basic but not fully supporting all the features in the hardware - all the rest of the crap relating to WGA, DRM and so forth have nothing to do with the conversation at hand. The issue is hardware support and how well the drivers support the features in the hardware - that is, features beyond the 'core' features of a given piece of hardware.
Member since:2006-08-15
"Lets move onto the audio driver, again, its 'supported' but when I put in my ear phones, the speakers continue to play audio even though ear phones have been plugged in. The audio record is a situation of hit and miss whether it actually works - like the webcam, it all works flawlessly in Windows. "
you can switch between your normal audio device to your usb-audio device and vice-versa with a customized ~/.asoundrc or if you are using Ubuntu you can use the asoundconf script
Edited 2007-10-28 17:43
Member since:2006-03-12
"WGA, DRM and so forth have nothing to do with the conversation at hand." If you are doing a comparison of hardware support then DRM,WGA is very important. Both for its negative spin, which impacts hardware cost, reliability, stability, driver production time, insane hardware compliance, performance issues, privacy concerns...the list goes on.. The massive major impact of this is *still* to be realized.
The positive spin will be Vista users *possibly* having exclusive premium(sic) content.
Vista has generally poor hardware support now, it has been RTM for going on a year, all you can say if hardware support continues to improve...but it will always suffer from crippling effects from DRM.
Member since:2007-02-17
Not entirely.
WGA, DRM and activation are all "features" of Windows that can make it not work, or work only in a degraded or reduced functionality mode, with your hardware.
DRM in particular is a messy intertwining of hardware drivers and the core of the OS that can result in degraded performance of your hardware. Deliberately.
It must be said, Windows has a lot of issues that derive from the basic fact that the source code is kept secret. All of these issues affect the end user, who has actually paid for the hardware, but the whole paradigm of keeping the source code secret and supplying binary-only copies of software is done purely and utterly in the interests of the hardware/software producer. Yet the consumer has to wear the expensive consequences.
It isn't so much Microsoft that I dislike, but rather the whole business model of closed source software, which ultimately and repeatedly ends up screwing the very people who are paying for the equipment.
Forced obsolescence (through software upgrade) of working functional hardware, for example, wouldn't be possible without closed-source drivers. Likewise, degradation of the video quality over an "untrusted" (by the RIAA) video path wouldn't be possible unless the OS was both complicit in the DRM scheme and also strictly closed-source.
All of these various mechanisms of screwing the end users and consumers ultimately rely on keeping secrets from the people who have actually paid for the equipment.
How is that ethical?
Edited 2007-10-29 00:17
Member since:2005-07-06
Member since:2007-02-17
Well yes. The article does sheepishly admit to the strong position Linux has with repect to drivers, but then it ponders on a vague criticism of Linux drivers, without actually citing solid examples.
Meanwhile, there is no real picture being painted that the state of Linux drivers is actually far better than any other potential desktop rival. It is better than OSX only because OSX makes no attempt to cover a wide range of hardware, and it is better than Vista because ... drivers in Vista are a disaster:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2704,2171472,00.asp
... enough of a disaster that even fromer Vista cheerleaders are publicly thinking of abandonning the OS.
This is the whole picture of the state of drivers that we should be painting.
Edited 2007-10-30 01:36
Member since:
2007-02-17
Vista doesn't work with anywhere near the amount of hardware that Linux works with.
The thing Vista needs to focus mostly on now is completeness and quantity of hardware support. Oh, and getting rid of the numerous "users-don't-want-it" features such as DRM and WGA and activation wouldn't hurt either.