It's getting better in my opinion
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| bigg Feb 05, 2009 12:55 PM EDT |
Sure, you can't be guaranteed that everything supports Linux, but it's not all that challenging to find devices that work with Linux either. When my wife bought a new laptop last fall, I was excited to see it had both Intel graphics and wireless. Took it home, and basically all live CD's worked fine with the graphics and gave me a wireless connection with no setup. It would be impossible for it to have been easier. I bought a laptop last weekend. Just one of the bargain basement $400 Acers. It has Intel graphics and a check inside Vista revealed a Ralink wireless card. Ralink has good Linux support so I bought it. It's certainly - in my experience at least - much better than it used to be. |
| tuxchick Feb 05, 2009 1:07 PM EDT |
I have a hard time giving any credence to someone who would prefer to run Linux inside a VM on Vista than spend a few bucks for a USB wireless interface that is supported in Linux. I bought one for one of my desktop systems from Newegg-- $25 including shipping, Ralink chipset, Just Works. |
| bigg Feb 05, 2009 1:59 PM EDT |
> I bought one for one of my desktop systems from Newegg-- $25 including shipping, Ralink chipset, Just Works. How about posting a link to it here? I'm sure others would be happy to know which ones will just work. That tends to be hit or miss, and I haven't found a helpful guide, as in one that will actually tell me which card to buy from which store. |
| dinotrac Feb 05, 2009 2:19 PM EDT |
TC - Yeah, now. Lots of ralink pain not that long ago... And you could be really cursing if you got the "almost" right chip -- ie, the 2501 instead of the 2500. Early versions of the new wireless stack were bad news indeed. Now, however -- roses and butterflies, singing cherubs, etc., but the drivers are pretty good instead of those cutesy little pests. |
| tuxchick Feb 05, 2009 2:53 PM EDT |
Bigg, it's the Rosewill RNX-G1W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833166... Doesn't seem to be available at Newegg any more :( I use it at the farthest end of my house away from the access point. Nice and fast and no dropped connections. |
| techiem2 Feb 05, 2009 2:58 PM EDT |
While he makes a good point of course, there are a couple things that need to be clarified: 1. It's NOT a Linux issue. It's a manufacturer/vendor issue. If they would release the specs for things instead of hoarding them all away in some deep dark closet drivers would actually get written in a timely fashion (i.e. without the devs spending years trying to reverse engineer things to figure out how in the world the device works). Or (heaven forbid) they could actually develop Linux drivers themselves. 2. This is not ONLY a Linux issue. People always mention "I installed distro X and hardware X, Y, and Z didn't work out of the box." Along with a: "There is no driver for it" or b: "I had to download the driver for it". But how often does that apply to Windows? Most articles never touch that issue because they are comparing installing Linux to preinstalled from the factory Windows. Anyone who has done a pure Windows install knows that directly after installing you typically have to go hunt down 3 or 4 drivers from the web (assuming you don't have CDs for them, which is rather likely these days if you have a prebuilt machine - you're lucky if you even get a restore disc anymore - anyone else remember when our computers actually came with ALL the drivers and ALL the manuals?). Not to mention all the hardware that simply doesn't have drivers for Windows versions X, Y, and Z because they don't feel like writing drivers for those versions anymore. And don't get me started on installing Windows on SCSI/SATA where you have to hunt down drivers BEFORE you even try to install..... So there's my mini-rant. |
| bigg Feb 05, 2009 4:26 PM EDT |
Thanks TC. > While he makes a good point of course His argument is not just that it there are problems, but that they are getting worse: Quoting:But the sad news is that it is getting harder, instead of easier.I just don't see how that can possibly be true. > This is not ONLY a Linux issue. When Windows doesn't have a driver, it's a flaw in the hardware. When Linux doesn't have a driver, it's a flaw in the OS and a reason Linux will never be taken seriously. |
| theboomboomcars Feb 05, 2009 4:44 PM EDT |
Quoting:Anyone who has done a pure Windows install knows that directly after installing you typically have to go hunt down 3 or 4 drivers from the web Hopefully one of those drivers isn't your network/modem driver. |
| vainrveenr Feb 05, 2009 5:25 PM EDT |
Like that old spaghetti Western film The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Good,_the_Bad_and_the_Ugly (and referenced by the appropriate http://lib.nmsu.edu/instruction/eval.html ?): The Good. Quoting:I bought one for one of my desktop systems from Newegg-- $25 including shipping, Ralink chipset, Just Works. Quoting:Now, however -- roses and butterflies, singing cherubs, etc., but the drivers are pretty good instead of those cutesy little pests. The Bad. Quoting:Doesn't seem to be available at Newegg any more :( The Ugly. Quoting:When Windows doesn't have a driver, it's a flaw in the hardware. When Linux doesn't have a driver, it's a flaw in the OS and a reason Linux will never be taken seriously.Then again, its entirely possible and maybe even likely that certain hardware manufacturers are somehow "persuaded" by a certain much less "roses and butterflies" company in Redmond, to try to keep those pretty good Linux drivers out of their products. |
| land0 Feb 06, 2009 11:12 AM EDT |
The hardware manufacturers have never and I mean never shipped quality drivers with their hardware. The best experiences I have ever had in context of highest and most reliable performance have all been with community developed drivers. You just cannot beat the experience of using a driver/software written by a group of people personally invested in the outcome. IMO I would rather take the effort to set it up once and have it just work then have it work and have to set it up every time I sneezed or farted. Seriously though the only people who seem to catch on right away and stick with it are those that think for themselves. I am not meaning to be rude or elitist. I base that statement on my 5 years of upgrading folks to Freedomware based operating systems. The everything should work over the counter argument is just plain silly. You don't just grab any headlamp replacement bulbs or the first pack of underwear you see. If you do I bet they wouldn't work out of the box either. :D GNU/Linux is a much more sophisticated and powerful operating system than windows or osx combined. It is worth taking two seconds or less to do a quick internet search for your hardware before you buy it. |
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