Drivers highlight Linux Summit progress

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The proprietary world is filled with drivers that are Windows only: The cool part is that the major graphics card makers, all of them, have open sourced their drivers up to a point. They did not even offer anything in the way of support up until the past couple of years. Most of the drivers in the hardware world are either open sourced or given a software wrapper to use them. The cool part is that the majority of modern PC and Laptop vendors have all the drivers for their machines already in the open source world and usable from day one with little or no hassle.

If you start with a clean Windows install you will find that the drivers are much better handled in Ubuntu Linux, lets say, than they are in Windows, itself. In order to get my HP printer up and running in the Windows world I do have to download and install the drivers for it. In KUbuntu, I simply click on the HPLIP applicaiton and tell it my HP printer is on the network and it finds it for me. The same thing applies to the Windows installer but I do not have to download the drivers or mess with them in the Linux world like I have to in the Windows world.

Linux, in general, has the ability to use about 90% of the hardware drivers out there. Unfortunately, my older Windows tools can't get past the newer computer's SATA hard drive but none of the Linux's out there have any problem with newer hard drives or PCI Express cards, even. USB and other plug in devices have no problem, either. When I want to upload pictures from my Coolpix, it will ask me which software to use or just run the default picture handling software.

If you have problems with any particular piece of hardware check out the NDIS wrapper web page and see if your web cam, for example, or Wireless N card is there and it is very little effort on a Ubuntu machine to add in the driver wrappers needed to make them work. Also, there is no malware in the Linux world so it is quite easy to get the devices working without the malware software that comes directly from the vendors. Windows machines are filled to the brim with malware from the hardware vendors.

Proprietary lock down by the Microsoft hardware vendors is finally being broken in the Linux world and it is about time. Most of the hardware software from the vendors of the hardware is flawed and they will not fix the flaws for you the Linux world may require an occasional hunt for drivers but the Windows world constantly has to deal with broken software from the Microsoft hardware vendors.; Posted by: progon Posted on: 04/24/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use