Linux lacks in hardware support


Recommended Posts

  C:\Smoke> said:
I think that linux really lacks in hardware support!

Also, anything you can do in linux can be done in Windows...

Not everything you can do in Windows can be done in Linux. (tis getting better tho)

You can't get ahead if you have yet to catch up...

Just my 2 cents.

586416209[/snapback]

Hardware support is great!

Even my cheapass scanner works with linux.

what hardware did not work?

please be specific.

Maybe it works out of the box , but that you have to edit a config file.

  mr_demilord said:
Even my cheapass scanner works with linux.

586416229[/snapback]

There you have it. Linux only has the most basic support for most hardware, that's acceptable for cheap hardware but if you got expensive hardware you want to use your hardware to it's limits, something you can usually never achieve with reverse enginreering.

  mr_demilord said:
Hardware support is great!

Even my cheapass scanner works with linux.

what hardware did not work?

please be specific.

Maybe it works out of the box , but that you have to edit a config file.

586416229[/snapback]

Not all scanners do.

http://hardware.linuxfaqs.de/view.php?tab=peri&ctype=Scanner

For me, though, my Canon IX-4015 works in Linux just fine. Does not work in XP at all.

  pappmasta said:
Glad someone said it.....

No its dosent becauase people dont work for free or give ideas away for free.

Yes there is freeware but i cant think of much free that got real popular and didnt have some sort of money making scheme

which is ok, cause i dont expect to have dazzling features handed to me for free.

Linux is more then capable of dazzling me but people who work for free have yet to do it...

586416243[/snapback]

Why is it that people still think no one who works on Linux/Open Source is employed... :no: Edited by markjensen
  Quote
I think that linux really lacks in hardware support!

Contrary to popular belief, Linux has the best hardware support of any OS. For every piece of hardware unsupported on Linux, I'll give you two devices unsupported on XP (for XP x64, I'll even give you 5 devices, 10 for XP ia64 :-) )...

  Quote
Also, anything you can do in linux can be done in Windows...

Not quite sure what you mean? In reality, I know of nothing important Windows does that Linux doesn't, but I know lots of things that can't be done on Windows. And don't mention 3rd party software, because there's also some 3rd party software unavailable for Windows (Apple Shake, for example, is only available for Linux and OSX) - that's up to the vendor, and has next to nothing to do with the OS.

  Quote
You can't get ahead if you have yet to catch up...

Care to elaborate?

  mr_demilord said:
Hardware support is great!

Even my cheapass scanner works with linux.

what hardware did not work?

please be specific.

Maybe it works out of the box , but that you have to edit a config file.

586416229[/snapback]

TV tuner support is horrible.

All in wonder's dont work!

Gyration Keyboard/mouse support = non existant!

Biometric security support = non existant.

Winmodem support = horrible!

USB WiFi support = horrible...

Need me to keep going?

Smoke,

what TV tuners don't work? AiW's are supported, check GATOS[1]. Gyration stuff should work out of the box[2], if it doesn't, you'll only need to configure the hardware properly. Biometry support is available[3], but not for all devices (granted - blame the vendors). WinModems are a POS, any Hayes AT modem is cheaper, works better, they are all supported, and they are more efficient. Anyway, most WinModems do work[4], even though the driver may be commercial closed source software (LinuxAnt)[5]. And USB WiFi just works on most recent distros, may need LinuxAnt drivers[6] or NDISWrapper[7], but that's the users fault for not buying properly supported hardware in the first place. Still, they work, so who cares...

[1]: http://gatos.sourceforge.net/supported_cards.php

[2]: Quote from http://www.gyration.com/intl/uk/testimonials_uk.htm :"Fantastic product hope you sell millions, you have my vote, and for you Linux users this is the best key board I have ever used even better than the little Linux keyer."

[3]: http://linuxbiometrics.com/

[4]: http://linmodems.org/

[5]: http://www.linuxant.com/drivers/

[6]: http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/

[7]: http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/

  LaNcom said:
Smoke,

what TV tuners don't work? AiW's are supported, check GATOS[1]. Gyration stuff should work out of the box[2], if it doesn't, you'll only need to configure the hardware properly. Biometry support is available[3], but not for all devices (granted - blame the vendors). WinModems are a POS, any Hayes AT modem is cheaper, works better, they are all supported, and they are more efficient. Anyway, most WinModems do work[4], even though the driver may be commercial closed source software (LinuxAnt)[5]. And USB WiFi just works on most recent distros, may need LinuxAnt drivers[6] or NDISWrapper[7], but that's the users fault for not buying properly supported hardware in the first place. Still, they work, so who cares...

[1]: http://gatos.sourceforge.net/supported_cards.php

[2]: Quote from http://www.gyration.com/intl/uk/testimonials_uk.htm :"Fantastic product hope you sell millions, you have my vote, and for you Linux users this is the best key board I have ever used even better than the little Linux keyer."

[3]: http://linuxbiometrics.com/

[4]: http://linmodems.org/

[5]: http://www.linuxant.com/drivers/

[6]: http://www.linuxant.com/driverloader/

[7]: http://ndiswrapper.sourceforge.net/

586416426[/snapback]

No, i know for a fact that the gyration keyboard suite doesn't work with linux... There may be a version that does, but the one i used to have never ever did. I had my college professors try to configure it, and they couldn't...

I agree that most issues are the fault of the vendor, but it still affects the OS's hardware support... Regardless of who's fault it is, it still doesn't support the hardware...

My old AIW 9700 pro never ever worked with linux... i tried everything...

  CaKeY said:
Does windows support those devices out of the box without 3rd party drivers?

586416281[/snapback]

The gyration keyboard suite worked in windows out of the box since windows 98...

There are no drivers (besides the standard mouse and keyboard drivers windows uses)

yes you can use webcams on linux, it depends on the chipset that the cam uses. my quickcam pro 4000 dosnt work properly with suse 9.3pro

but if you look around the net you will find some good support sites. http://www.linuxquestions.org/ is a good place.

http://rpm.pbone.net/ is good for getting packages for your chosen distro.

and http://linux01.gwdg.de/~pbleser/ if you are a suse user is good as well.

Smoke,

well, either you tried the Gyration stuff on Linux 0.99, or on a b0rked distro, or even your professors were quite clueless - I know for fact that everything Gyration built works on Linux. Anyway, like I said, pretty much every piece of hardware you listed does work, I'm sorry if it didn't work for you. And the 9700 is explicitly listed as supported on the GATOS page, so I'm sure you didn't try everything...

BTW, do you expect OSX, SUN, or sgi hardware to work on Windows? I didn't think so... :-)

  Quote
Winmodem support = horrible!

Ever wondered why they are called winmodems? I'm sure if they made linmodems the windows' support for them would be rubbish.

Anyhoo, the fault for lack of hardware support is not the fault of linux. It's the fault of the product vendors for not making their products work in anything other than windows. Linux does however have more generic drivers than windows. It will recognise most devices as what they are. Eg, in Windows, it detects my digital camera as a USB Mass Storage device. In linux it gets every detail right down to the model number - using generic drivers in both windows and linux.

the only problem that I had making the switch was sound, but with enough reading I got it working. I blame the vendor for my sound problem, because their drivers support an older sound system, however, the generic drivers I'm using now completely detected my onboard sound, and they work like a charm.

Windows only has good hardware support because hardware vendors support it. This is starting to change, and you can see that in Nvidia and ATI. I read somewhere very recently ATI expanded their Linux driver team very recently, to improve their Linux support.

  MGS3-SS said:
[..] you are just too dumb to know how to set up your own hardware.

586417598[/snapback]

There is no need to start down the road of personal insults here. :crazy:
  Tomo said:
It's not that Linux lacks in hardware support, its the manufacturers cannot be arsed to support their hardware! It's not the fault of Linux!

586417612[/snapback]

While I agree that it isn't Linux's fault, it is, however, tied directly people's experience with Linux. While Linux does support a huge array of hardware, it is the Windows-based consumer pieces that cause problems. You can argue that there is better overall support for all hardware in Linux, but if user xyz's DSL adapter gizmo isn't supported, it is a problem for that user. Even if it is supported with a 10-step series of commands and downloads at the command line, the new user is going to have some serious concern about their ability to configure and use Linux.

This is an area of improvement (whether Linux leads Windows in hardware or whether they trail Windows).

I do agree with the thread title. First it was the installer not recognizing my hdd because it was in SATA mode. Then it was not recognizing my video card until I booted in VGA 4bit color mode and downloaded the NVIDIA drivers. Then it was the 50 steps I had to take to get my Live! 24-bit soundcard to work.

It's just so much easier in Windows.

  dueY said:
Then it was not recognizing my video card until I booted in VGA 4bit color mode and downloaded the NVIDIA drivers.

586417978[/snapback]

While I agree that there are areas where Linux detection and automatic installation could improve, I find it nearly impossible for an nVidia card to not work with the default open source "nv" drivers included with every standard distro, and require setup in some bizarre 4-bit mode. :blink:

(by the way, commercial distros can include the propriatary drivers that 'free' releases cannot, so Linspire and others will auto-detect and run propriatary video and wireless that require extra steps on 'free' versions).

  dueY said:
I do agree with the thread title.  First it was the installer not recognizing my hdd because it was in SATA mode.

Except you have to insert a fscking floppy disk during XP installation for it to recognize even the most basic SATA drives. I haven't had a floppy disk in my computer for AGES.

Vista amazingly supports loading drivers from a CD. Amazing, such progress.

Oh wait, no it's not. :no:

  daPhoenix said:
Except you have to insert a fscking floppy disk during XP installation for it to recognize even the most basic SATA drives. I haven't had a floppy disk in my computer for AGES.

Vista amazingly supports loading drivers from a CD. Amazing, such progress.

Oh wait, no it's not. :no:

586419318[/snapback]

I didn't need a floppy to install Windows. I don't even have a floppy drive.

And the nv drivers didn't work for my 6800, that was one of the first things I tried.

This topic is now closed to further replies.
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Posts

    • eagerly awaiting a version that runs on android tablets
    • I grew up with the Beach Boys. Even saw them in concert in the 70's. Brian suffered from mental issues all his life. May you find peace wherever you are.
    • Wikipedia suffers backlash from human editors over AI summaries, prompting feature pause by David Uzondu Wikipedia editors have pushed back against plans from the Wikimedia Foundation to test AI-generated article summaries, powered by Aya, the open-weight AI model from Cohere. The non-profit has now paused the project. The decision came after a swift and overwhelmingly negative reaction from its community. As first reported by 404Media, the plan involved a two-week, opt-in trial on the mobile version of Wikipedia. But the volunteer editors who build the encyclopedia met the idea with immediate and fierce opposition. The project's discussion page became a torrent of rejection. It included simple comments like "Yuck" and blunt declarations like "strongest possible oppose" and "Absolutely not." One editor argued that a test would cause "immediate and irreversible harm to our readers and to our reputation as a decently trustworthy and serious source." They noted that Wikipedia has built its name on being sober and reliable, not flashy. Another feared it would destroy the site's collaborative model. They argued that while the "collective mass" of human editors "evens out into a beautiful corpus," the AI would install "one singular editor with known reliability and NPOV [neutral point-of-view] issues" at the very top of an article. That same editor also noted the following: For context, this is what AI-generated summaries on the platform was supposed to look like: Image: 404Media It is not hard to see why they are so protective. The editors' fears are grounded in recent and very public failures of AI features from tech giants. For example, Google's AI overviews recently hit 1.5 billion monthly users. The feature became a laughingstock for telling people to put glue on their pizza and that a dog had played in the NBA. This is the kind of humiliating error Wikipedia's community is desperate to avoid, as it would undermine two-plus decades of careful work. We also saw the potential for reputational damage back in January. That was when Apple's AI feature falsely generated a notification claiming that Luigi Mangione had died by suicide. The man was actually alive and in custody. On the site's technical discussion page earlier today, Marshall Miller (MMiller), a Senior Director at the Wikimedia Foundation, posted an update acknowledging the feedback. He admitted, "It's clear we could have done a better job introducing this idea," and confirmed the experiment was paused. The Foundation says the goal was to explore accessibility for different readers. While this specific test is off the table, the organization still wants to use new technologies. Miller ended with a promise: "We do not have any plans for bringing a summary feature to the wikis without editor involvement." A WMF spokesperson also told 404Media that though the feature has been paused, the foundation is still interested in AI-generated summaries. The spokesperson insisted the goal was to eventually build moderation systems where "humans remain central" and called this kind of backlash feedback part of what makes Wikipedia a "truly collaborative platform."
    • I see, yeah that makes sense. I have been in situations where I barely did not crush badly on the road due to other driver starting to change lanes into another car - freaked out last second and avoided it by crashing into the side of the bridge instead. i got away because I quickly changed lanes 2 times in a couple of second and unlike that idiot I did not lose control big part of this was my car was good 😊 (audi a7) vs the old van the crashed driver was driving would AI be able to react and quickly change lanes twice both time barely avoiding collision … I don’t know my car systems pumped the breaks and tried to warn me with a beep and vibration but if I slammed the breaks the car behind me would hit me then again I have BMW driver training and a good car - so I have no idea how robot taxi would react i am not sure extreme fast lane changes would be programmed in - it is dangerous as hell unless you are FULLY aware, and have done it before but it is a general risk to do it especially in the conditions with bad weather and when you are not driving a sports car with 4 wheel drive and very good control
    • PDF Arranger 1.12.1 by Razvan Serea PDF Arranger merges or splits PDF documents and rotates, crops and rearranges their pages using an interactive and intuitive graphical interface. It is a front end for pikepdf. It's available for Linux and Windows. PDF Arranger features: Merge double-sided scanned document Delete pages from a PDF file Rotate pages in a PDF file Merge multiple PDF documents Zoom in / out Export selected pages from a PDF Undo/redo support Duplicate PDF pages Crop white borders Supports importing encrypted PDF files Create a booklet from multiple pages Allow to edit Keywords, Subjects and dates in document info ...and more PDF Arranger 1.12.1 changelog: Fix incompatibility with Python 3.13.4 on Linux #1238 Update Dutch and Italian translation Download: PDF Arranger 1.12.1 | 42.6 MB (Open Source) Download: PDF Arranger Portable | PortableApps.com View: PDF Arranger Website | Other operating systems | Screenshot Get alerted to all of our Software updates on Twitter at @NeowinSoftware
  • Recent Achievements

    • Collaborator
      CHUNWEI earned a badge
      Collaborator
    • Apprentice
      Cole Multipass went up a rank
      Apprentice
    • Posting Machine
      David Uzondu earned a badge
      Posting Machine
    • One Month Later
      Stokenking earned a badge
      One Month Later
    • One Month Later
      Kevin Jones earned a badge
      One Month Later
  • Popular Contributors

    1. 1
      +primortal
      537
    2. 2
      ATLien_0
      266
    3. 3
      +Edouard
      193
    4. 4
      +FloatingFatMan
      181
    5. 5
      snowy owl
      135
  • Tell a friend

    Love Neowin? Tell a friend!