Perhiperal setups in Fedora

[Les Mikesell]

On Thu, 2006-07-20 at 12:55 -0600, Phil Meyer wrote:
> >
> > But, my concern here is that Linux has come a long way since we all 
> > first started using it 10 years ago or earlier. But it still hasn't 
> > come far enough ahead to act like Windows (for example) that when you 
> > install Linux from scratch - it simply doesn't find all the 
> > peripherals such as scanners that Windows finds so easily?  I wonder 
> > why after all these years.
> This is a common misconception.
> 
> I have a device.
> I plug device into computer.
> Does device now work?
> If yes, done.
> If no:
> Did the manufacturer of said device provide special drivers for it?
> Do I have them?
> If yes, install them.
> Does device now work?
> If yes, done.
> If no, call the manufacturer.
> 
> This process is NOT OS dependent!  It is the same process for mainframes 
> as it is for every computer in existence, regardless of what OS may be 
> on it.

Except that Linux does not provide a stable API for vendor provided
drivers, and distributions discourage them by refusing to include
them.

> Have you forgotten the days when scanners came with their own SCSI cards 
> and the drivers never seemed to work with WINDOWS, but all the good ones 
> only worked with UNIX systems like SUN, HP, and SGI?

Companies that went out of their way to provide a stable and
documented interface...

> Times change, but the problem with device drivers is still the same.

But the competition has changed.

-- 
  Les Mikesell
   lesmikesell at gmail.com