Re: [Trisquel-users] internet

[chris]

Microsoft Windows does not support a lot of hardware. We have this perception  
that the Microsoft Windows platform is well supported when it frequently has  
worse support than free platforms.

Despite the common assumption much of the older hardware (less than 6 years)  
does not work on the latest version of the operating system. Even things that  
worked in Vista don't work in 7 for instance. One of the USB Bluetooth  
chipsets for instance we were looking at utilising work fine with all the  
Linux and derivative kernels. Try it in 7 and there is no support. Try it in  
Vista and it sort of works at a fraction of the speed. The same is true for  
hundreds of different printers amongst other devices. Some of these devices  
don't work in the latest versions of GNU/Linux either although by far this is  
tiny in comparison. A lot of companies release free drivers and so the code  
continues to be supported with free operating systems. The manufacturers  
don't release the equivalent drivers for Microsoft Windows or Mac under such  
a license and therefore when support is dropped by them the printers  
frequently do not work with the latest editions of Microsoft Windows.