Perhiperal setups in Fedora
Les Mikesell
lesmikesell at gmail.com
Thu Jul 20 20:49:34 UTC 2006
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
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