• uzay@infosec.pub
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    1 year ago

    I have had to spend so much more time thinking about drivers on Windows than on Linux it’s not even funny

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        1 year ago

        I have never had problems with Nvidia drivers on Linux mint detects them and ask if you want to install the official drivers

        • methodicalaspect@midwest.social
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          1 year ago

          LMDE didn’t install the DKMS modules on my kid’s PC, so the nVidia drivers never loaded after a new kernel got installed. I do enough tech support at work so we chucked Pop!_OS on the PC (and set it up with btrfs and timeshift-autosnap) instead. No more problems.

          May not be a problem with mainline Mint, of course, but there are weirdos like me who prefer the Debian edition.

        • RickRussell_CA@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Unfortunately it has weird issues with my bog standard Intel HP Omen laptop and a 2060 GPU.

          Basically any kind of sleep mode kills the GPU. I have go into Display settings and force a re-detect to wake it. Kind of a pain when you use the laptop connected to an external monitor with the lid closed.

      • InFerNo@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I’m starting to wonder if this is a meme or if people are actually having problems.

        • Rendh@feddit.de
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          1 year ago

          Less about problems and more about performance/features in games. How much of a hassle is it to get dlss, ray tracing etc running? How’s the performance impact from not properly supported drivers.

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      1 year ago

      I don’t know how Linux users are using Windows but whenever I see comments like these I’m surprised they aren’t using OSX or a tablet instead of a computer by now because they clearly don’t know what they’re doing…

        • Uranium 🟩@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Or using any legacy hardware such as the playstation eyetoy camera, a usb keyboard with a built in piano keyboard, some old random TV tuner card

          Then there’s the hardware which windows only ever had 32bit drivers for, meaning even if you find the drivers on some obscure dodgy site they’ll never work.

          Then there’s the whole bs of windows not allowing unsigned drivers.

          None of these issues on Linux

      • Zeth0s@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The problem is maintaining the os. Installing the drivers on windows is usually fine. Maintaining them is frustrating, because of how updates has to be done, and the dirty uninstall process, and the issues.

        On many Linux distro it doesn’t work perfectly, but maintenance is so trivial that people become used to it. And going back to a high maintenance OS is annoying. Like going back from a modern EV to ford model T. Some people like the experience of going back in time to the mid 90s with Windows, other prefer the simplicity of maintaining a Linux OS

        • kazakhspy@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I dont get it, can you provide some examples please? I installed windows 10 like 2 years ago on my “new” laptop. I have installed all drivers from my external hardrive. Since then I havent done anything related to drivers ever. If I plug something in, like an external screen, controller, mouse, headphones whatever, it installs itself automatically and just works. I havent done any maintenance either, except I will dust it off every other month or so. And thats pretty much the same with every PC I ever owned. What OS maintenance am I supposed to be doing? I sometimes do registry cleanup and disk defrags, but I thinks those are just placebos :D

          • Zeth0s@lemmy.world
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            There no real control of what and how you installed stuff. This create long term issues. This is why you perform registry clean up. But it is not enough, because of orphaned and conflicting dlls, inconsistent installation paths, conflicting versions. You probably don’t see just because you are used to the issues and you think that’s how things work.

            If you install a better os, everything is accurately and centrally managed, making maintenance much more easy. Problem is with closed sourced software and drivers, because they break the normal processes of installation and maintenance, creating similar issues as in windows (not as bad because the os is better engineered)…

            • stephen01king@lemmy.zip
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              1 year ago

              I’ve never done any registry cleanup for years now, ever since I know better than to think Windows need any of that. How many years ago have you used Windows? You’re like that Windows user that keeps telling people you can’t game on Linux. It’s old news by now.

              • InputZero@lemmy.ml
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                Often the conversation here feels like the commenter hasn’t used Windows since XP. I use Windows and Linux daily and I think most commenters are wrong with their trash talk of Windows but right with their prop talk of Linux.

                If you install a better os, everything is accurately and centrally managed, making maintenance much more easy.

                This is so true, especially if you’re doing any development. Everything just builds from the package before it more or less. So you don’t end up with duplicates of the same code and end up with /programfileA/blah.whatever being different from /proframfileB/blah.whatever and fucking around for hours cause ‘the file is updated, and it’s pointed to the right file. Why does it say it’s not’. Until you figure out it wasn’t pointed to the right file/package and you kick yourself for missing such a stupid mistake. Ask me how I know lol

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                1 year ago

                I unfortunately have to deal with it daily at work… With a premium laptop that cost thousands, and it is extremely less performant than much smaller and older machines with linux (I use linux at work as well).

                I am not saying anything controversial. It is literally the reason why windows professionally is used for accountants, but it is practically never used for tasks that require performances, reliability, stability and long term maintainability.

                Most casual users live with these issues, many move to mac, few move to linux. Victims of corporate IT like me must justify the budget to avoid the standard laptop and get the overpriced piece of extremely powerful hardware to have a daily experience slightly better than a raspberry pi running on respbian. Because outlook…

                • Crass Spektakel@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  I am using a Netbook from 2009, Atom N570 1666Mhz, 2Gbyte RAM, 120GByte SSD. It is 550 gramm light, is so small it fits into the interior pocket of my jacket, runs eight hours on battery. And everything runs okeyish on it except maybe Youtube-Videos inside Firefox. So I set Firefox to start Youtube-Videos in VLC. Now I can even watch Youtube on my rusty old Netbook.

                  Worst problem: 32Bit support is running thin nowadays. It could run 64Bit but on that old system that actually costs quite some performance.

    • flashgnash@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I have spent very little time worrying about drivers on either.

      On windows geforce came preinstalled and I just updated it occasionally when something didn’t work

      On NixOS I add one line to my config file and it handles Nvidia drivers for me and updates with the rest of my packages

  • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Meanwhile, Windows in 2023: “oh, you plugged the same flash drive into a different USB port? Better reinstall a new set of drivers!”

    • Zeth0s@lemmy.world
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      "Let me search for a solution

      No solution found"

      Has the annoying “search for a solution” window ever found a solution?

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        1 year ago

        Yes for stupid stuff like turning off the network device, to cut access to the internet. Windows finds by itself that the network device is disconnected and reconnects it by itself. Granted it’s not much, but it’s as complicated to find that menu than to run that utility.

      • kmkz_ninja@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Has the annoying “search for a solution” window ever found a solution?

        Actually yes. In W7, at least, anytime sound wasn’t doing what it should have the “search for solution” button would fix it right up. The first time it gave and performed a solution and worked I was dumbfounded.

    • Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2003*

      Never had my PC (win10: 2016-2022 and win11: 2023-now) install a driver for a USB stick ever.
      Even some external devices are painless.
      And I see plenty of PCs in my job.

      • Mininux@sh.itjust.works
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        1 year ago

        huh every time I plug my Logitech receiver in a different port I get a notification about a driver installation, fortunately it’s almost instant on my new pc but it’s still weird that we need that in 2023

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        I still have it from time to time that Windows has to install a driver for something benign like a thumb drive. Not always, though. And yes, the driver is fixed to the physical port. Using a different port reinstalls the same driver again.

        Experienced this exact behavior on Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 and Windows 11.

      • Szwendacz@kbin.maciej.cloud
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        1 year ago

        I once was fixing someones computer booting with Bluescreen, because Windows 7 thought it found newer drivers for USB 3.1, and those newer were causing BSOD

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        I’ve seen this so often on Windows Vista, and I’ve never seen it on Windows 10.

        Granted, I’ve switched USBs in the meantime, so maybe it’s just the USB?

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      I don’t feel attacked just confused

      Drivers are included in the Kernel on linux.

      Windows on the other hand… let’s just say it can’t handle printers very well

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          Nah, my HP P2035 is working great for 7 years straight. I just plug the USB into any Linux or Windows PC, or even through a dongle into my Android phone, I press “Print”, and the thing just prints!

          From what I’ve heard, it seems most laser printers are awesome. And get yourself a Brother, is what people say on the Internet.

      • ugo@feddit.it
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        1 year ago

        Yeah I was very confused. Only thing one needs to install nowadays is mesa and the correct Vulkan loader

      • aard@kyu.de
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        1 year ago

        I’ve just been using Windows for work stuff now and then for over two decades now - so I just have the install scripted so I can just deploy it from scratch whenever I need it, and throw it away afterwards. Before we had multicore CPUs making emulation not annoying I had a sun workstation with a SunPCI card for that.

        The one constant over all windows versions is it running into some driver issues for stupid reasons. Now with 11 its the signed drivers - and while you can do exceptions for development I never got unsigned graphics drivers to work.

        Also, Windows on ARM is horrible - something as simple as a usb serial adapter doesn’t work because there just are no ARM drivers.

  • riodoro1@lemmy.world
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    Go to hp website and download crapware thats gonna search for drivers for you. Make sure to install symantics bullshit, amd catalyst bullshit, hp battery bullshit and other useless crap too.

    Meanwhile linux boots to a perfectly running computer first time with no icons in the tray.

    • Zeth0s@lemmy.world
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      You forgot whan the upgrade of the drivers and bloatware goes wrong on windows… What a great experience of “simplicity”

    • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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      You forgot the part where you have to look up what to write in the terminal whenever you want to do something, but I forgive you, it’s easy to forget something you need to do daily.

      • riodoro1@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You take the mouse and do clicky clicky. Luckily theres usually one control panel on linux in contrast to three more and more legacy versions in windows where you need to go three levels deep in order to change the local ip address.

          • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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            RPI is ARM not X86_64.
            You really think that’s a proper equivalent?
            Because it’s not, it’s not even the same at the terminal level because you’re missing quite a number of select tools that aren’t cross-compiled (yet).

            Try Windows on ARM and compare it to the x86 version.
            Not to mention both Linux and MacOS are way more developed on ARM than Windows is.
            MacOS being the best ofc, thanks to the compatibility layer.

            I believe your judging Linux too harshly based on an uneven playing ground.

              • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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                Don’t hurt yourself trying to comprehend the difference between ARM & x86_64 architecture my man!

                Deadass, I challenge you to install Windows on that Raspberry Pie, actually use it for a week, film the whole thing and upload a video on “just how amazing and usable Windows on ARM is compared to it’s X86 version” & seriously mean it. If you can do that, only then will your obvious troll energy turn into anything real. Fuck it, if you manage to install steam on Windows 11 ARM that’d be enough.

                I’ve been there, done that. ಠ⁠_⁠ಠ

                • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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                  You realise the comment I was replying to was “I bet you never used Linux or you used it 20 years ago” and I simply replied to that and you’re the one who decided to shift the conversation to talk about ARM vs x86/64 and their compatibility with other OS… Right? You realize you derailed the conversation?

                  RIGHT?

      • irmoz@reddthat.com
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        1 year ago

        I literally click one button and it starts the entire automated update process. The only interruption is asking for a password

      • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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        First off, you really don’t need the terminal if you choose to avoid it. You can get by just fine with a GUI package manager included in the “user-friendly” Linux distros; which is essentially a graphical app store that handles all installs, uninstalls, updates & system updates for you with a point and click.

        Second :
        Tab key, Auto completion, command cycling, command highlighting, man pages, TLDR pages, and so on.
        There’s no; absolutely 0, zippo, nada; reason you should, need, or want to remember individual commands or how to use them when the previously mentioned exist.

      • MaliciousKebab@sh.itjust.works
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        On the other hand, it takes only four letters and hitting enter for me to update everything installed on my pc so not that hard to memorize a few commands.

      • Trobador@lemmy.world
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        If you have to do that to install anything, it’s either always your package manager or something that can be copy-pasted from the included installation guide.

        You don’t even need the terminal in most cases. You have GUIs. Simple ones.

        I’d rather have to type a line than struggle with installing 10 pieces of unnecessary bloatware individually

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    Maybe for now, but as soon as more people switch to Windows 11 or Microsoft apps that constantly show you ads and are basically spam / adware themselves, Linux will get more appealing.

    Microsoft is unfortunately learning from social media companies. Not only do you PAY for the product, you are also the product, and get your personal info stolen and get served ads even while you pay.

    It’s getting to the point where I’m seriously eyeballing Mint again, or Kubuntu. And I’m the kind of person that’s generally too lazy to even dual boot anymore.

    • Lvxferre@lemmy.ml
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      Sorry for the uncalled advice, but you might want to avoid Ubuntu. Canonical (the company behind Ubuntu) is being rather obnoxious pushing for a technology called “snaps” that has a bunch of issues, among them performance.

      Mint is fine. In fact I’m distro-hopping from Ubuntu to Mint again.

    • ObiGynKenobi@beehaw.org
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      1 year ago

      Linux seriously needs to figure out laptop battery life. Not much chance of going mainstream when installing it means a 50% drop in your battery life. Until then, I’ll use Linux on my desktop and just disable all the adware spam shit in Windows on my laptop.

      • FediMan@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        That’s the job of the manufacturer. Check out system76, framework and tuxedo laptops

      • limelight79@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        I have not had this issue with three or four laptops running Linux over the years. Power management turned off somehow maybe?

    • Diplomjodler@feddit.de
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      1 year ago

      Just do it. I used Windows mainly out of apathy for years. But once I made the switch, I never looked back. Mint is easy to use and doesn’t get in the way. And there’s zero shitfuckery going on.

      • RobertOwnageJunior@lemmy.world
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        Might sound stupid, but I want to be apathetic about my OS. I mainly game and I have been using Windows since I was 8. I know it in and out and if I am not forced to (or if ads really get that crazy), I am not gonna switch. It’s just nothing I am remotely passionate about.

      • Link.wav [he/him]@beehaw.org
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        So far, I find Mint massively less frustrating to use than Windows. It feels faster, too.

        Windows is so full of bullshittery, it’s not even funny.

      • Hydroel@lemmy.world
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        I kind of like Windows 11, but even the Pro version is riddled with ads. The search banner in the taskbar has them regularly, there’s a large number of falsely installed Microsoft Store apps in the Start menu (which get downloaded when you click them, like Netflix, Disney+, Spotify, Instagram, I think also TikTok and I’m certainly forgetting some), the whole “news” menu on the left side of the screen is just that too. The Windows 10 default Mail app (which I think is close to be the perfect email app on Windows) is also being retired in favor of Outlook, the free version of which has an ad displayed either as a banner at the bottom of your mails list, or as an unread email at the top of it. This prompted me to enjoy the Thunderbird update, which isn’t as good but has no ads. And that’s not even counting Edge, the shortcut of which gets added back to the desktop on a regular basis, which redirects all HTML help pages and searches to itself instead of using the default browser.

        You might not have seen any ads on your W11 computer, but it’s probably either because you have a system-wide adblocker, installed scripts to remove some of the most invasive bloat, or simply hand pick and manage carefully all apps and and settings on your systems (that’s what I do, but when I do I make it so I won’t see it again). Or you don’t notice them as ads, which is sadly very possible.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          It’s probably just that I take five minutes to clean up the mess after install and it’s not an issue ever again…

          • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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            The thing is, why would you want any of that crap to begin with? Like sure you can disable it, but wouldn’t it be nicer if… You… know… it wasn’t there in the first place?
            Like if you had the option, wouldn’t you want to ditch Windows for something a little less anti-consumer?
            Hypothetically, let’s say there was an OS that meet all your needs, wasn’t riddled with ads and trackers, and tries to empower you as a user; wouldn’t you choose that OS?

      • heimchen@discuss.tchncs.de
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        You mus have a nice install. I see them when I press the windows button. I see them when I press a random combination and this wierd left side window pops up and task bar shows you not only weather but also shares.

        • Kecessa@sh.itjust.works
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          A mix as there’s home builds with enterprise and laptops with the “original install” (i.e. reinstalled windows using the built in tool)…

    • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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      Exactly! This sentiment is why I ditched Windows in the first place. That and the combination of unnecessary annoyances that slow my workflow in which the majority of Windows users seem to be desensitized too.
      Linux already works for my use case, so why would I want to voluntarily deal Microsoft’s anti-consumer practices? I don’t.

  • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Am sorry, but what? Who searches for drivers on Linux? I’ve been a user for decades now and searching is either don’t buy shit hardware or just do apt search.

    Windows on the other hand is literally looking on support sites to find latest version.

    • Schadrach@lemmy.sdf.org
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      Am sorry, but what? Who searches for drivers on Linux? I’ve been a user for decades now

      The last time I gave Linux a serious go on the desktop, I had an ISA Sound Blaster card that supported PnP. Under Windows, it was automatically detected and would at least play sound out of the box, without installing any additional drivers and had a few special features that you had to install SB drivers to make work. Under Linux, in order to get any sound at all, I had to dig around online to find out that you needed to download a driver package, install it, then run a tool from a shell that would generate a config file for the driver with every configuration the card might possibly have, then manually edit that config to tell it which config you actually had, then restart the driver and then you’d get actual sound out of it.

      I don’t doubt it’s drastically improved since then, but it’s always made me a bit gunshy about trying it again.

        • desconectado@lemm.ee
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          Although that’s true, it’s still an issue. I don’t think anyone is blaming Linux for this, but the issue is still there.

          I’ve never had a finger print reader working on Linux.

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      Nobody. It either works out of the box or you’re out of luck. Windows has worse problems, actually. Try using hardware from 2000 and earlier from manufacturers who are out of business. Chances are, it will just work right away linux, but on windows, even if you manage to find the drivers, they are most likely built for 32-bit XP or something and won’t ever work on modern versions.

    • rastilin@kbin.social
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      The newer ones too. Online Microsoft drivers are not always the ones you actually want to run.

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        I’ve only seen that happen with AMD cards from an 8yo laptop, where the Microsoft provided driver somehow lacked OpenGL support. And my desktop’s sound driver, where only the older driver supports my setup. But those are the only two cases that come to mind since Win8 came out

  • puppy@lemmy.world
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    I have never even thought about drivers let alone search for them in Linux. Everything just works out of the box.

    The only exception was when I wanted to try a different version of an NVIDIA driver. Ironically the one that worked best was the one that came with Ubuntu and was installed by clicking a checkbox to use proprietary drivers over open source

    • lud@lemm.ee
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      It mostly works out of the box. Go ahead and search for a few laptop models on arch wiki and you will discover that quite a few of them have features that need manual fixing (regardless of distro) and in some cases is unfixable.

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    1 year ago

    Ah yes, windows where I have to somehow figure out how to install the drivers for my network adapter before I can actually connect to the internet, on top of having to go to a different website for each device that needs a driver to find the correct one, download it and install it.

    Vs Linux, where network (and most essential) drivers are baked into the kernel, and all other drivers (for peripherals, etc) can be had via a package manager, where you can often find free and open source solutions. Also, video drivers are automatically installed with the OS (provided you are using a distro with a proper installer, cough use Endeavour cough), and automatically updated when the system is updated.

    • root_beer@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      I just installed Windows on my daughter’s new [to her] computer last night and this did not happen. Don’t get me wrong, I loathe Windows, but c’mon.

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        1 year ago

        I had the ethernet in my desktop mobo not work when I tried upgrading to win11. Worked fine in 10 but no internet on 11.

        I also had a very difficult time getting a Xbox wireless controller adapter working on win 10 without spending about 2 hours searching.

        Windows usually works but sometimes it just fucking doesn’t. Linux isn’t perfect either but I usually don’t have issues with my Ethernet ports not working.

    • lunaticneko@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      What kind of weird or shitty NIC you’re using that needs a specific driver for Windows?

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        1 year ago

        Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 Gen 8 Notebook comes with a MEDIATEK MT7922. Windows 11 does not want to install unless you circumvent the requirement for Internet or supply it with a manually downloaded driver.

        Linux? Just works.

    • striderstroke@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I tend to have driver issues more so with Linux than windows in my experience. Both seem to be capable at the very least of automatically installing a lot of the drivers without user intervention.

      • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        You’d have more driver issues with Windows if you used hardware that wasn’t already being sold with Windows pre-installed by OEMs/system integrators. Comparatively Linux supports a wider verity of hardware for much longer, Windows on the other hand only really supports consumer grade hardware that’s likely to have it pre-installed anyway with a limited (and often predestined) EOL.

        If manufacturers treated Linux desktop as first class like with Windows or Linux on Servers then there’d be a very small amount of unsupported & likely obsolete hardware.

        • striderstroke@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          My system is one I custom built myself. I don’t really think I’ve ever owned an OEM desktop before. The driver issues I tend to have was with multiple USB WiFi adapters I’ve tried with my computer. I had to do some really weird black magic shit to get them to work properly. I also couldn’t run my TV at 4K 60hz on Linux, but I could on Windows. Freesync has also given me issues when trying to activate it. Not the fault of Linux if manufacturers don’t give it proper support, but this has been my experience unfortunately. Windows would indeed have more driver issues if less drivers were being officially supported like if any other OS didn’t get proper driver support, so I’m not really sure what you’re trying to point out to me. What exactly is “consumer grade hardware”? Doesn’t Windows run on other things as well besides just your typical desktop?

          • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The driver issues I tend to have was with multiple USB WiFi adapters I’ve tried with my computer.

            I just use WiFi tethering which circumvents that whole thing, so I can’t speak on that.

            I also couldn’t run my TV at 4K 60hz on Linux, but I could on Windows.

            This could be a few things, from the drivers to your display output configuration. I have a 4K 60hz TV that works perfectly fine with Linux, the display output just wasn’t configured correctly. This is something Wayland can indirectly streamline for us in the very near future as it adds features that allows developers to better handle & support various displays.

            Freesync has also given me issues when trying to activate it.

            This is unfortunately an area that’s all up to one entity (AMD) to sort out but they just haven’t. The way they’d achieve this is straight forward on paper; they’d have to make a FreeSync standard driver and provide similar GUI tools.

            don’t really think I’ve ever owned an OEM desktop before.

            That doesn’t mean you’re not using the components found in common OEM pre-builds.

            Doesn’t Windows run on other things as well besides just your typical desktop?

            Not really, no.
            There’s Windows server but it’s woefully unused and is basically dead. Why even use it when Microsoft Azure (Linux based) exists. Amongst the security issues raised by various cyber security professionals.
            Additionally the driver problem is flipped in this area; I could grab just about any server hardware and it’ll likely work with Linux no problem. However with Windows, I’d have to look specifically for Windows compatible hardware, as there’s just not much insensitive to support Windows in the server space.
            You can find Windows XP running on random legacy crap. But as of modern Windows, a Microsoft Surface and Valves Steam Deck is about as unique/exotic as the hardware gets.
            Windows just isn’t flexible enough to be used outside of the desktop in any real compacity and Valves Steam Deck is great example of this. The Steam Deck may have the drivers to support Windows but navigating it is a whole different story.

    • Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      I had a similar situation with my ryzen 1600 motherboard, except it was the sound card. Everytime windows updated it would dump the driver I installed and try another one that was broken. I had to keep my sound drivers on the desktop so I could reinstall them. This occurred even after I reinstalled windows 10 on a different ssd.

      • Scary le Poo@beehaw.org
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        1 year ago

        And back at that time if you installed any flavor of Linux you were lucky if the OS install didn’t fuck itself over, also God help you find drivers, assuming that they even existed. At least xp would function.

        As of windows 10, windows will always function on pretty much any hardware out of the box. Some obscure Chinese WiFi dongles might have some issues, but main board drivers are always right there.

        Linux users have this weird echo chamber where they seem to think that Linux just works. It can but it’s a 50/50 chance that it won’t and you’ll spend hours troubleshooting. Also os updates on Linux have a high probability of borking the entire os.

        Windows, for all of it’s many many faults, generally does “just work”. It might not be perfect, but it will function.

        • argv_minus_one@beehaw.org
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          And back at that time if you installed any flavor of Linux you were lucky if the OS install didn’t fuck itself over

          I was using Linux religiously back then, and this is false. As long as there’s a driver for all of your hardware, it generally worked fine.

          But that “as long as” is doing some heavy lifting. The usual suspects were pretty much the same as now: Broadcom, NeoMagic, and NVIDIA.

          • Scary le Poo@beehaw.org
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            1 year ago

            And that’s the rub. You have to very specifically choose your hardware for Linux. Or at least you had to back then. It’s not quite so bad now, but back then it was a real showstopper. Especially broadcom. That caused me no end of issues back in the day.

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          1 year ago

          If you want to have some fun install Windows 10 on a hard drive. Disk usage will go to 100%. It doesn’t do this on SSDs except maybe very rarely. I’m pretty sure this is not a bug, but intentional so that people will buy a new PC. Windows 7 will run flawlessly on the same hardware. Although Linux is starting to demand higher hardware specs than it deserves.

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      1 year ago

      Sounds like you clearly haven’t used Windows in over a decade, or even close to two.

      I haven’t had to install a network driver since Windows XP. Even then it had drivers for most cards built in.

      • Crass Spektakel@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        When I last installed Windows I had to google where do download Libreoffice, Firefox, Steam, Audacity, VLC, Gimp and a lot more software.

        On Linux most came preinstalled, the rest was one click in the Repository (“Store” for Generation Smartphone)

        • inge@discuss.tchncs.de
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          When I last installed Windows I had to google where do download […] On Linux most came preinstalled

          You can’t have it both ways.

          On one day, you complain about all the so called “bloatware” that’s preinstalled on Windows (more “pre-linked” and easily installed, and these “links” are easily deleted).

          The next day, you complain that the specific subset of software you want to use is not preinstalled on Windows.

          Lastly, the way you go about finding where to get your software, that’s more of a philosophical question. Do I want someone else to curate a list of available software, or do I want to visit the publisher’s website and get it directly from the source?

          • Crass Spektakel@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            At least on Debian/Ubuntu I can use tasksel to select a useful preset of packages right while installing. Base is just a text mode shell with minimal command line tools, Server has some Network Stuff, LXQT, Gnome and so on… for the total N00b it is fine to default to KDE or Gnome, I prefer LXQT though. And tbh, I think Firefox, Libreoffice and VLC are useful preinstall in nearly every use case while the usual stuff on Windows is pretty useless (Another Antivirus? Really? A trial version of a paint programm inferior to Gimp 1.0? Office 365?)

  • woodgen@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    How do you even search for drivers in Linux? I thought this was a windows only thing

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      You need to if your device isn’t officially supported. This is pretty common for USB wifi cards.

      There’s a DB of officially supported cards , and if your card isn’t there then you have to look up for a driver.

      Usually they’re fairly easy to find with just googling.

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          Easier said than done. I did want to look into writing wifi drivers but imo these are the most difficult drivers to write code for.

          • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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            Facts, they can be a huge pain due to manufacturers not providing proper documentation; essentially forcing you to reverse engine the driver from scratch.

        • desconectado@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          And this is a clear example of how to keep people away from Linux, nothing push more people out of a community than shamming.

      • Rustmilian@lemmy.world
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        On Arch they’re usually right in the AUR. I imagine there’s people adding them to the new AUR-like Debian repo which name I can’t remember rn.

      • Crass Spektakel@lemmy.world
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        On one side it is a rare sight to need to install a driver for Linux. I had an Star NL24-10 printer with an IEEE-488 connector for the C64.

        INSANE! Linux natively supports C64 peripherals.

        I build a simple adaptor from Parallel to IEEE-488-Serial and when I told CUPS the printer was on /dev/ieee488 it immediately found it. Insane. Oh, the Floppy was also available, at least at sector Level though there actually is no C1541 Filesystem so I had to open it in Starcommander, some sort of Norton/Midnite-Commander, which officially supports those images.

        The amount of supported hardware is INSANE. You will get stuff working which works nowhere else.

        The coolest shit are Host-Based Storage Systems, with the most known group as Memory-Technology-Devices. For example there are SMR-Harddisks where I can change the SMR-Layout from my computer. I can say “50% capacity CMR, 50% SMR”. Or Host-Based-QLC-Drives where you can select for each MinWriteCell how to use it: As ultra-Fast SLC/MLC, as the middle TLC or as the superslow QLC. Sure, it costs Capacity. But the choice ist yours. I bought a Data-Center-Intel-QLC-Drive and converted it to 50% MLC at 3.5GByte/s sustained and 50% QLC with 0.5Gbyte/s. Sure, it reduced the capacity of the 4TByte Drive to 3TByte. But who cares if it is so fast it blows anything away. On Windows you can not even detect those drives.

        But: If you have a really bad case of “unsupported hardware” then things get complicated fast.

        • clanginator@lemmy.world
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          What do you use to manage SSD/HDD management like that? I just reinstalled Arch and would love to mess with this.

          • Crass Spektakel@lemmy.world
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            Beware: Those MTD-Stuff does NOT work with consumer stuff. Highend-MTD is practically not existing for consumers because Windows doesn’t support them anyway.

            If you check the Linux Kernel Frontend you’ll find a section about “MTD devices”. There are some userspace programs listed for managing the kernel components. Those tools are somewhat good for Host Based SMR hard drives but you might need tools to unlock the drives which I didn’t need because they got unlocked at work. Those HDs are only sold to data centers. The two I have at home are from work and it is a miracle they let me have them at all.

            Flash based MTD though is sometimes available but not in normal computing. Because SATA, NVMe, eMMC are actually “to advanced” for that stuff. MTD is VERY Low-Level. The driver does everything, buffering, moving from MLC to QLC, refreshing cells and so on. For me it is a PCIE-Card with absolutely no intelligence but a very fat driver. But you might also find it in old Linux/Android-Based phones, Netbooks and Tablets though current smart phones use “smarter” storage like eMMC. Iphones have MTD but you can not get Linux to run on them.

            • clanginator@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              Very interesting, thanks for the info. I may have to piece together an ebay server to mess around with some of it.

              • Crass Spektakel@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Good Luck. I haven’t seen those drive ANYWHERE outside Amazon and Microsoft backend Systems. Technically speaking they weren’t even from “Servers” but from “SAN” systems.

      • averagedrunk@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        You can be a nerd and promote a movie. Vin Diesel is a big ol’ DND nerd. Rosario Dawson is some sort of Star Trek superfan. Henry Cavill is way too into fantasy, and Warhammer in particular. Rashida Jones is a gamer. Colbert is a Tolkien nerd.

        And you’re still here. Aren’t you a big ol’ Potterhead?

        Disclaimer since text doesn’t always come across the way you mean it: None of that is meant to be offensive. I’m a computer nerd for a living and a fantasy nerd. I love nerds. They’re my people.

    • a Kendrick fan@lemmy.ml
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      No true nerd and or communist wants noobs and or libs on lemmy, sure your inferior thoughts are welcome and we’re here to help correct them.

      The empty threat that lemmy won’t grow is irrelevant to me, the more like minded people who see proprietary software and capitalism for the sham they are, the more they move to better alternatives that truly care about them.