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Re: OT: Switching Sides
by b10m (Vicar) on Nov 30, 2003 at 22:49 UTC
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Unfortunally, yes, not all hardware works well with Linux. It's always good to check out the documentation to see if the hardware is supported before you buy it. Is Linux to blame for this? Nope, the hardware manufacturers supply Microsoft with the specs of their appliances, (if they don't build their own drivers) but don't throw it out to Linux developers (not always true). Most hardware does work though. I have no problems with :
- soundcard (Creative Audigy 2 Platinum eX)
- graphicscard (Radeon 9600)
- tvcard (Pinnacle PCTV Rave)
- scanner (Canon CanoScan N650U)
- webcam (Creative Webcam Pro)
- digital cam (Aosta -something-)
- DVD burner (Nec -something-)
- printer (HP Deskjet 690C)
and what not more may float in and around my machine.
That said, Linux runs on far more architectures than, say, Microsoft Windows.
What kind of printer and digital cam do you use, that's not supported by Linux?
Added:Yes, this all sounds pretty zealous (sorry), but to summarize it all: Yes, Coruscate, hardware support is not as good as it might be with Microsoft Windows, yet a lot does work or will work in days to come. So the OP would do best to check his hardware first, before installing some Linux flavor
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I decided to try a last ditch effort at searching for info on my printer. Turns out it's possible to get most functionality out of it on linux. It looks like a painstaking journey though. I have an all-in-one copier/scanner/printer made by hewlett packard. I found a linux page indicating what needs to be done to get it to function. It's far too much hassle for me to bother. There's one thing I have to hand to Microsoft: ease of installs. Took me 2 minutes to get the printer to load up. This install on linux would take me literally hours trying to battle through the dependencies that would likely arise. I'm just not willing to spend those hours becoming frustrated over such a thing. That's just me. Let me know when I can just plug the printer in, boot linux and begin printing, no hassle included.
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There's one thing I have to hand to Microsoft: ease of installs.
I certainly would not hand that to Microsoft, the company that expects you to reboot anytime you install a relatively complex application.
And, if the installs are "easy" the uninstalls are impossible; at least, if you really expect every trace of the software to be gone.
If you have a problem with some hardware being supported under any platform, bring it to your hardware vendor. Better yet, check before you buy and let the vendors get the point through reduced sales. They'll start publishing their specs and devoting resources to driver development on alternative platforms when they realize they can make money by doing so. The good news is that many vendors have already gotten the point and you should be able to find a compatible alternative for almost any component you need.
-sauoq
"My two cents aren't worth a dime.";
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It's really a cyclical problem - as linux (as a desktop OS) has a very small user base you are unlikely to see the same level of support from hardware vendors as you do for Windows or even MacOS. That's not going to change anytime soon, unfortunately.
Personally I've been running Solaris and/or linux since the early 90s, and I've never really missed the features that are available under Windows.
These days I run RH 7.3 and Fedora Core on both my main desktop and my laptop, and I have an old-ish Sparc machine runnning Solaris 7. On the linux systems I have a VmWare virtual machine that I can boot into Windows if I really need to, which I tend to be very rarely to run Sybase's PowerDesigner database design tool.
Michael
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Re^3: OT: Switching Sides
by DrHyde (Prior) on Dec 01, 2003 at 09:05 UTC
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And even if there are drivers which claim to support your hardware, the amount of time it takes to persuade them to drive your hardware, not leave your serial or USB ports horked, and continue working after your laptop wakes from slumber (if you can get it to go to sleep and wake up again in the first place!) - well, all those wasted hours are worth enough money for you to have just gone and bought a Mac. On which you can then use perl to your heart's content.
I've wasted too much time on Linux, sound, video, power management, USB, PCMCIA and other arcana in the past. Linux is *not* ready for portable use, and only barely suitable for wizards' desktops. | [reply] |
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Yep, that's linux for you. I still say it is wonderful though. It is quite the dream machine for development and production though. It provides an unimagineable number of resources and tools for programmers. The only problem I ever really have with linux is hardware-based (or the time I removed a couple of important system dependencies oops). So all in all, linux is good for me. Just not with a printer :)
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Re: Re^2: OT: Switching Sides
by synistar (Pilgrim) on Dec 02, 2003 at 15:53 UTC
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As far as outline editors go - have you tried leo? It is cross platform (linux/win/mac) and fairly good.
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