Weiqi Gao wrote: > [I'm 15 minutes into #266 and I have to pause the podcast and shoot this > email out. (If I don't and wait till the end, I would forget all about > it.)] > > Why is it that when it comes to the question of Linux's hardware > support, people always bring Windows out for comparison? While in every > other occasion, people beat Linux with Mac OS X? > > Surely Linux supports more hardwares than Mac OS X, doesn't it? > I wouldn't be too surprised if Linux supports more hardware than modern versions of Windows -- trying to install a recent version of Windows on an old box is no task for the faint of heart. Usually no one tries, though. No one expects that to work.
The thing people expect to work are the recent devices. The vendor will produce a more or less working Windows driver, but Linux support is often left to the hackers, which can result in anything from a driver that is much better than the Windows one to no support at all. There are many factors getting into this, but I think the two most important are the hacker's interest in the product and the complexity of the driver (which is often based on the amount of stunts the vendor does). I think it would be all better if there would be a "Works on Linux" logo or something along those lines, but while I have heard that argument many times before I am not aware of any attempts to implement such program. Currently as a user you have to guess which product might work and which not. And then there are those that used to work but won't under newer kernels, but that's a whole different story. To summarize: the problem is not that Linux supports less hardware than Windows, the problem is that if you go out and buy new hardware, it will work on Windows but it may or may not on Linux. And to find out before you buy it can be very hard even for an experienced user. Peter --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
