My Point is that while a majority of people use Windows for computing and they are content with it, fine. just don’t complain to the other people that have chosen to Operate their machines in the fashion developed during the days of IBM SHARE or The Hackers Community days. Linux has a goal. and that is to offer all the software necessary to make your hardware machine work. With Millions of people around the globe working to this end, the OS is very stable.
It might not be a game machine like Windows, but that is only one use of power of the hardware, not it sole role.
Drivers for Linux go to the Kernel Group for testing and review. daily there is activity. Windows does not need to worry about making drivers, that is left to the hardware manufactures that want to make a profit and support the OS that will require the user to pay.
Since Freedom has always triumphed over Totalitarianism (or socialism) A Free OS will eventually over take an Proprietary OS. The Drivers in Linux are there because we knew they need to be to make the machine work. Microsoft doesn’t need the driver in there kernel because they have Market and hardware vendors want to feed off of that market.
Fine. Windows Users Stay where you are and do the best you can with what you can afford and what you are hoping will be a comfortable experience using your Computer.
Free OS Users Lets continue to develop software that uses hardware effectively and share it with the world….and let’s continue to give the Windows Users some of our work too Like Open Office, Gimp, Netscape (Mozilla, Firefox, etc), Blender (used in the Movie industry for New 3D animation Films)….The ease of use is our Victory so lets share it. eventually the Freedom will be enjoyed by all. Even if they didn’t know what happened.
I use MS, Linux, Unix OS. One by Job Requirement, the other two to exercise my freedom and to enjoy computing.

Personally I’ve never experienced serious trouble with Windows and hardware support. That is not so weird: Windows owns the market, all vendors create drivers for it. Linux on the on other hand lacks a lot of support or compensates with 3rd party support. I’ve seen awfully many pc’s failing to run Linux in a stable way because of hardware support problems.

Hardware support for Linux is far behind Windows’s, although you may be right about the neat way Linux handles all compatible hardware. I wish vendors would by default create drivers for Linux :(. I can’t use Linux now due to these problems.

Other than 3D Desktop requiring installation, every thing Just Worked.
Ubuntu did NOT “fail horribly”

From a human rights and privacy perspective, Microsoft’s draconian licensing is invasive and plain wrong.

Best wishes, G.

I think Window’s have the edge at the momment because manufactures tend to supply laptops running Window’s and write and test the drivers accordingly.

That said Window’s don’t make things easy do they, you get one shot to make a media backup copy and thats it! I had to google around to find the reset tool before I could upgrade my hard drive, why do you only get one shot for sw that is yours anyway?

Apparently your knowledge of Linux is far below basic comprehension. You don’t deserve the right to post here.
-5 Intellect Points for you

So, I hook CD/DVDs to an IDE channel, and the hard drives to the other IDE or a PCI controller.

love that SimplyMepis6.5 for my 64bit AMD system! http://www.mepis.org

Also, we have a strong tendency to move hard drives around, often ending up in a different machine than were it was installed. Windows gets upset and disables some things (such as running in VGA mode) until the new drivers are installed. Linux, however, rarely will boot, given reasons for kernel panics that seem to indicate that we changed the motherboard chipset without updating a driver or that the wrong type of power management is present or some such. And of course, after the kernel panic, there’s not even a nice maintenance mode where one can actually fix things…instead, one must boot a LiveCD (something linux does much better than Windows — but Windows [b]can[/b] do, too), mount the hard drive and fix the configuration by hand (system tools, especially graphical ones don’t typically work on the mounted file system’s config files).

And don’t get me started about X… simply put, X’s configuration tools are at least a decade behind Windows, although I hear the next Ubuntu (Gutsy Gibbon, I think) will, for the first time, have an automatic fallback to VESA (or something) when the X config fails — something Windows has done pretty much forever. Apparently, the X folks never realized that video hardware sometimes fails without warning and must be replaced with DIFFERENT hardware, so they made that activity almost impossible for anyone except an X-guru.

On the other hand, if you’re looking for support for hardware that you found in an old warehouse, on a forgotten and dusty shelf, linux will almost certainly support it, while newer versions of Windows will not. But linux drivers lag behind the bleeding edge for most things (although more hardware companies include linux drivers these days, they are often “tainted” and therefore not included with most distros).

Then this particular OS HAVE to have drivers available for future hardware that doesn’t exist yet.

…yes I know what you’re talking about and I would agree with you. Just trying to point out why a piece of hardware should include drivers.

One thing makes me wonder why it dows exist at all, and that is when I am able to choose to “search the internet for drivers” option in the “add new hardware” popup window.
I’ve been fiddling with alot of hardware of various kinds along my path with computers. but not a single time this option ever worked for me.
So I wonder, is there any drivers available with that option at all?

… I mean …

Not even Microsoft’s hardware have any drivers available with that option.
why does it exist?

Linux in the other hand, for example Gentoo, have drivers available for hardware via internet for all kinds of hardware, with a simple command to install it, or even with a simple kernel update.

Yes, most hardware now ships with Windows drivers. But frankly, I much prefer the drivers coming with my OS, especially when I’ve lost (or never had) the discs that came with the hardware.

Windows XP is not 7 years old, or 6 years old. We’re talking about driver support here and Win XP SP2 is from August 2004.

Also, your argument here seems to be that Microsoft is somehow exempt from having good driver support because they only update make new service packs every 3 years?

But even that doesn’t make any sense because the upgrade to Vista has broken the vast majority of drivers. Driver support in Vista is much, much worse than it is in XP.

But that aside, hardware support is only one of the things that people consider. The vast majority of people don’t ever install Windows on their own machine — see the earlier comment on this story about someone that claimed Linux was more difficult than Windows because he had to install Linux!

From what I can tell, Vista wouldn’t have been any better. XP SP2 didn’t support an IDE card that came out well before it did. Why would Vista suddenly support it?

It seems odd to expect that to work in Vista. The manufacturer doesn’t even provide a Vista driver.

I have no idea where I can find the exact text of the OEM EULA, but from what I saw on this page, I still believe I’m in compliance.

Too bad Microsoft doesn’t use the old Borland no-nonsense license, which said essentially “treat this software like a book — it can be used by any number of people any number of places, but only by one person at any given time.”

Or better, like the GPL…

But in any case, it says something that there is debate about whether or not it is legal to keep my copy of Windows when my motherboard dies.

Sigh.

Quote from http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/oemeula.htm:

“2. If the motherboard is a factory replacement for a defective Motherboard, you can speed up the phone call activation process and avoid confusion by stating [if asked] you made upgrades in compliance with the OEM EULA. [i] As stated above, I would considered the replacement of a defective OEM motherboard in compliance with the OEM EULA.[/i] [b]Replacing a Motherboard with anything other than a direct replacement or upgraded Motherboard would fall into the category of a new system and a license for new operating system software is required.[/b]“

This was a fully-updated XP with SP2.

I installed Linux on my machine the day I got it, and it has not been reinstalled since. It too has simply been updated over the Internet.

Are you saying it’s unfair to Microsoft because their updates don’t include new hardware support?

Did you miss the part that says “As stated above, I would considered the replacement of a defective OEM motherboard in compliance with the OEM EULA”?

And then the group project. Two PCs in good identical and pristine condition were chosen to be fully configured, one with the latest Windows (college-licensed CD set), the other with current Red Hat Linux (from the web, on CDs).

It wasn’t a contest. The Linux machine was up with all components working – fully and as expected – by the end of the (I think) 2-hour lab. Of corse, this included applications, so the result was ready for the end user in a computer lab – with all updates downloaded and installed.

The Windows machine ran in safe mode without the expected video resolution or sound support – and even that result took another hour past class end to achieve. And, if we had been successful, there were zero end-user applications included – not to mention security updates to download.

So, Linux has beat Windows on fresh installs for over seven years, IMHO.

John, enjoyed your article.

OEM versions of windows aren’t legally transferable between motherboards. In other words — your version isn’t legal anymore, see http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/oemeula.htm

Legit or not — it’s noted in documentation that replacing motherboards while keeping old OS is not supported.

so, I get my vista “DVD” in the mail a month later. figure this should be easy! WRONG! 32/64 bit versions both had horrible driver support! I had to pull all the drivers down off HP on my ubuntu install, usb thumb drive it, (thank god usb worked) and go through the install re-boot loop for what seemed like days… and to this day my cam still does not work in vista… and it is sooooooo slow! xgl in linux screams compared to vista! so I booted it back to XP pro for the sake of my one crutch game (guild wars). (another headache but at least it all works now!)

conclusion – linux – 1
m$ – 0

Once I have a system set up using Mandriva, hotplug and coldplug daemons seem to find everything I need.

Once I replaced my fileserver which was a 1Ghz PIII with a P4 board and processor with RDRAM and a completely different architecture. Most of the parts in the system were brand new and all I did was cycle power and it worked.

Not a single driver out of place.

Sometimes Linux really does make life easier.

My laptop is an exception, however. Figuring out the nuances of wireless access was a pain. This is only due to stupid companies not wanting to offer Linux support, however. If there were linux native drivers, then WiFi support would be instant and flawless.

The point is that Linux evolves, fast. Whereas Windows is pretty much stagnant between every major release. They just don’t have the same easily updated distribution system, which is sort of backwards because Windows is the OS that you have to reinstall… all… the… time…

When was the last time you slipstreamed new drivers into an XP CD to make sure you can even install the OS on your new hardware? Why would you even have to do this?

One of my friends nuked his computer by shutting it off while it was installing an update to Norton antivirus. The entire OS was just dead after that, couldn’t even start in safe mode.

So I did what I usually do in these situations, I put in a linux rescue disc, backup everything through the network and then reinstall windows XP. The factory default had done some pointless partitioning, so I took the opportunity to remove all the partitions as well so the new XP would install on just one big one.

Which went well, until I put the XP disc in and the installer claimed there wasn’t a hard drive in the machine.

That’s about the time I realized that the preinstalled image the store had put on the computer where my friend bought it, had the drivers for the SATA controller already on it, whereas the standard XP disc that came with it did not.

I never thought I would’ve been happier with a set of 9 rescue CDs including all the default crapware rather than a real OEM copy of XP SP2, but there you go.

As you might know, hitting the F6 button to load external drivers during an XP installation will ONLY work with a floppy drive. Fortunately there was a floppy connector on the motherboard and a power plug for it in the PSU, but even the case didn’t have room for a floppy drive. Who uses this anymore?
I had to pick up an old dusty IBM from the basement, rip the floppy drive out and then connect it out the side of the computer case in order to install the sata controller driver I had downloaded from the internet on another machine.

It took an entire day to fix this computer.

I also told my friend that the next time his computer dies, I’m either putting linux on it, or he’s on his own. That’s the last sata driver I will ever install manually.

Have you installed Windows XP from scratch on that machine? I’d be almost 100% certain that a vanilla Windows XP install CD wouldn’t support it all either, and you’d have to resort to a different machine to create floppy driver disks, etc. — if you can even find the appropriate files for a floppy driver disk for that SATA controller.

I have been using linux for 7 years now and I’ve had my share of crises installing or configuring hardware on linux, but it should be noted that in linux is’ far easier to tinker with even the way your computer interacts with the hardware that windows doesn’t even offer.

I enjoy buying a new device, digital camera, palm pilot. I usually do this with a friend’s media device or something, I challenge them to plug it into my USB and they refuse saying I need drivers, and since I’m running linux I can’t. I try to tell them I already have the driver for their device installed and they refuse again, saying I’m lying. Finally when they plug their device in and it is recognized, mounted and a properly configured device icon pops up on my screen – that’s when they realize windows is still in the stone age.

Think about hardware support this way. Take your Vista installation disk and put it in your computer. it will boot and install. Now go ahead and put it in your PS3. I think you see my point.

Every time I have tried Linux: Ubuntu (Edgy Eft), KNOPPIX and Debian I have had nightmares getting it to work with my hardware. I don’t have anything facny, Gigabite Motherboard, IDE HD , Seagate SATA harddrive, Attansic L1 Gigabit Ethernet, 2 GB Corsar Ram etc. (all very standard components) but I had trouble with each flavour of Linux. None of them worked with my network card (which is pretty much the most important thing to get working as it in-turn allows you to fix all the other problems) and some even had trouble picking up my Seagate sata hard drive.

Until the fixes for this are within the reach of ‘normal’ users (I’m somewhat of a power user, although new to Linux) without having to boot back into windows or use another machiene to scour forums for an answer then Linux adoption will struggle to take off.

I eventually found a solution on an obsucre forum after hours upon hours of searching which required numerious trips to the console copying and pasting pages of text, but with Windows everything just worked.

Granted it could just be this hardware configuration and I might be unlucky, but if that is the case then it’s not at a stage where its good enough.

flash

It was only when I re-installed Windows, since it wouldn’t even boot, that it borked my ubuntu partiton, and I had to re-install. That’ll tech me not to detach other drives when installing windows. But if you want to play Sims2 you’ve gotta have windows. :(

I think you are right about better hardware support in GNU/Linux, that is as long as you do have driver support in the kernel. The problems do start if you don’t have driver support in the kernel.
GNU/Linux does not get as much support as Windows from the manufacturers. If I knew nothing about computers, it is still fairly likely, that for any new device that I buy I just have to put in the driver CD plug in the USB cable and it will work (maybe not great but it will usually work). Compare that to trying to get certain softmodems to work in Linux.

I mean it is a little bit like the claim that Linux is too hard to install compared to Windows. It is not, though quite a lot of people never have to install Windows because it comes preinstalled.
Most people don’t exchange their motherboard, nor want to install Windows XP on a SATA drive and sure as hell no ‘normal desktop user’ wants to use an alpha or sparc processor in his machine.
Of course for the server and the embedded market supporting other architecture is a big plus, but to get a higher percentage in the home desktop user market Linux has to overcome the driver for “Granny’s new camera” problem as Mark Shuttleworth expressed pretty eloquently on his blog.

http://www.markshuttleworth.com/archives/76