this post was submitted on 19 Jun 2024
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On Linux, all those drivers are already included in the kernel out of the box. Linux has much better hardware support than Windows in general, the only issue are proprietary drivers from third parties that don't support Linux.
I had the experience recently with two wifi usb sticks. Linux: Work out of the box, no hassle. Windows: One was not supported on Win 11 and caused blue screens, the other only works on USB2 port, not on USB3 and it was a real hassle to finde the right drivers.
That's why I don't understand people who say Windows is easier than Linux.
Because it hasn’t always been this way. When I was first learning linux you couldn’t guarantee support for any hardware unless you compiled the kernel yourself. Even then you’d run into many problems that would frustrate a non-techy person.
To be fair, it is very important to remember that some community member has put work into making it work, the way that it does. I'm incredibly thankful, that we're in a position, where OSS outperforms proprietary software in so many ways. Support these people, if possible
More often than not, it is the companies themselves that commit drivers for their hardware to the Linux kernel
My experience with my usb wifi dongle was different. It would work way faster on Windows compared to Linux for some reason until I replugged it some time and ever since it works in similar speeds. I couldnt reproduce what went wrong on the Linux one ever since.
Can you explain what you mean by this. I have only a bit of experience with a few distros but hardware issues have always been a bugaboo for me with Linux. This statement seems quite the opposite of my experience. I mean I guess it's because of the third party proprietary drivers, but that's a decent chunk of the hardware pie and it's hard for me not to include that in "better hardware support"
There are basically two different approaches to drivers. Windows will have some very basic drivers built-in, but most of them are downloaded and installed when a component that requires them is detected in current versions of Windows.
Linux on the other hand includes every driver it knows about out of the box. You won't ever need to install additional drivers if the hardware is supported. This makes Linux an excellent portable system, you can just take a drive out of one pc with an AMD CPU and Nvidia GPU and put it into one with an Intel CPU and AMD GPU without driver issues*.
*as long as you stick to the included drivers
Linux runs on a LOT more different systems than Windows. The stuff it doesn't run well on is mostly built into desktop computers, so that's what the average user notices.
Not my experience at all. Always having to deal with hardware compatibility with Linux, for mundane stuff that Windows never even blinks over.
My best example is a Logitech mouse, arguably the most prolific and popular mouse out there, they don't work in Linux at all, until you find a third party tool. In Windows, they work immediately, albeit without Logitech's fancy management utilities. But they just work.
I see this all the time on Linux, with mundane stuff.
Which mouse and which distro? I'm genuinely curious. I've plugged my MX Master 3S directly into my work laptop running Arch many times and have never had to do anything to make it work.
Where as I've got my 3S plugged in to my work laptop running fedora and, and I regularly have to cycle the connection setting away from the bolt dongle and back again, because the input becomes choppy and laggy.
No issue with the straight bluetooth connection, but the high resolution scrolling doesn't seem to work
Which mouse? HID is all but guaranteed to work on linux
My logitech G900 is plug n play on all my linux installations.
The same is true for the inexpensive logitech mouse that I have as backup (although it’s a piece of shit of a mouse and what made me decide to avoid logitech like the plague going forward).