On Wed, 2004-12-15 at 11:56 -0500, Christian Convey wrote: > Hi guys, > > Recently I've spent a lot of time digging through udev / hotplug issues, > getting to know modprobe, modules.conf, alsaconf, XF86Config-4 etc. > This was all to get a digicam and a flashdrive to be useful, or to make > sound/video work. > > As much as I like Linux and its ideals, I thought to myself, "I've never > had to deal with issues like these in Windows. I buy a product, plug it > in, and almost always, it just works." > > I'd really like to advocate Linux more to friends and family, but I just > don't feel like I can recommend the OS to non-techies until dealing with > hardware gets easier. > > Do you guys have any reflections on why, for technical / social / market > / whatever reasons, this difference exists between the two OS's exists? > And are those differences necessary or accidental?
The biggest reason is because the companies that make these products don't bother with testing or supporting them under Linux. There's also a technical reason behind it which is that, until recently, Linux systems have not been very 'smart' with regards to auto-probing devices. It was expected that if you wanted to use a device, you would set it up the way you wanted it and use it. Recently, this has been addressed by things like hald and gnome-volume-manager (in Gnome at least), and udev has laid the groundwork for not only an easier to maintain, but functionally superior to Windows solution of device management. I think that with a bit of time, Linux systems will become a lot easier to use for most people. Since the community has stepped up to the challenge of making the system more auto-probe friendly it is now only a matter of getting manufacturers to take some time and effort to test and support their devices on Linux systems. That, unfortunately, is MUCH easier said than done. But I am quite hopeful that, one day, it will happen. -- Alex Malinovich Support Free Software, delete your Windows partition TODAY! Encrypted mail preferred. You can get my public key from any of the pgp.net keyservers. Key ID: A6D24837
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