Linux lacks in hardware support

By C:\Smoke>
in Linux

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mr_demilord

Posted
Posted
  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.

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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.

Grand Master

icecaveman

Posted
Posted
  mr_demilord said:
Even my cheapass scanner works with linux.

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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.

Grand Master

markwolfe Veteran

Posted
  • Veteran
Posted (edited)
  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.

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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...

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Why is it that people still think no one who works on Linux/Open Source is employed... :no: Edited by markjensen
Proficient

LaNcom

Posted
Posted
  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?

Collaborator

C:\Smoke>

Posted
  • Author
Posted
  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.

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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?

Proficient

LaNcom

Posted
Posted

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/

Collaborator

C:\Smoke>

Posted
  • Author
Posted
  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/

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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...

Collaborator

C:\Smoke>

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

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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)

Grand Master

Intersect

Posted
Posted

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.

Proficient

LaNcom

Posted
Posted

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... :-)

Grand Master

Mouldy Punk

Posted
Posted
  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.

Mentor

seethru

Posted
Posted

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.

Grand Master

markwolfe Veteran

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

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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!

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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).

Enthusiast

dueY

Posted
Posted

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.

Grand Master

markwolfe Veteran

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

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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).

Grand Master

Miuku.

Posted
Posted
  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:

Enthusiast

dueY

Posted
Posted
  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:

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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.

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