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unholy software..
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this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2023
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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 graphical installer for ease of use, cough use Endeavour cough), and automatically updated when the system is updated.
I haven’t tried to use Linux for desktop in a while, probably as long as they haven’t used windows. Because in my mind what they said is 100% backwards.
Seems like both have matured quite a bit
And Windows update takes care of 99.9% of missing drivers automatically.
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)
Just use winget in PowerShell.
That's a "terminal" for generation typewriter.
Chocolatey, winget
All that stuff they listed is packaged, versioned, and handled. I'm pretty sure there's gui's too, if you're into that
For chocolatey, maybe. I haven't seen a Winget GUI yet.
Microsoft really should do that, but I think the "but what about our App Store numbers" guys would rather that didn't happen. I don't believe that anybody outside of people who were already otherwise Linux users has touched winget.
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?
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?)
You're right about the network drivers, but on things like serial drivers, Windows is a fucking nightmare. Hell, I can't use some devices because FTDI drivers will brick the device if it decides its a knockoff of their chip. Getting anything working that isn't consumer grade is a shit show.
Serial drivers? Are we talking rs232? (Checks what tf ftdi is)
Ah yes. We really are talking about very old school stuff. It brings back memories.
This week I learned we have a waterslide connected through rs232 to a pi in our network. How's that for a IOT discovery. Working for a medium sized municipality really shows you all the bonkers solutions (and implementations) out there. If you can think a IT horror up, chances are good somebody really has created it and is using it commercially.
Back to your issue, which is more a Ftdi issue then a windows issue since they themselves create the crashing drivers. And I can see how an old school serial port, connected to a modern pc can result in all kinds of havoc when done wrong.
I see FTDI also have usb to rs232 solutions. That should work... Mostly. (as long as the solution doesn't go looking for an irq or other horror from the past.)
I'm really getting curious for what use case you're still using rs232. Most network gear these days is perfectly managed without it.
USB to serial converters are what use these drivers and they're used all day long for IOT stuff
Make that 2 decades I gather. Maybe even 3. This sounds like nt4 territory. Maybe barelu6 win2k.
I was a windows user up until about a year and a half ago, and had this issue as recently as Windows 10. I had to use my phone as a tether to go download the drivers for my TP-Link Archer T6E. Also had the issue with my MSI z97m Gaming where I had to go find drivers for the built-in wired network adapter, again using my phone as a tether, on Windows 8.1
Idk, I just built a PC with Realtek mobo integrated wifi, we couldn't even install the OS because it didn't detect the NIC and Windows forced us to sign in before it would continue the installation.
Had to lug the machine to a router to get anywhere, and still had to download the Asus mobo software to get the wireless going. Wasn't convenient in the least.
That's big brain stuff, will keep that in mind next time
So.... You didn't check your installation requirements. Is that what you're saying?
And this wouldn't have happened with Linux?
We had a USB prepared with drivers in advance, but that's useless when you can't get to a desktop. I admittedly didn't realize you couldn't even install Windows 11 without an active network.
Linux would at least let me install the base system and configure the drivers after. Funny enough that USB mentioned is my ventoy and we did experiment with Linux Mint before we started on Windows. It found the NIC and network on the live ISO with no effort, I honestly thought it would be smooth sailing after that experiment.
I would have just gone with mint personally but wasn't my system, was just helping a friend.
Since drivers are so specifc, people's anecdotal experiences with having to install them is never going to be shared.
IE, I had to install a wired NIC driver just last month on a fresh Windows 10 22H2 for a Dell laptop that was no more than a few years old.
This doesn't happen in windows anymore. Over 95% of all drivers auto install.
Yeah the last time I had to install drivers for a network card on Windows was over a decade ago
I had to install a network adapter driver the other day. Had to use my wife's computer to download into a flash drive and bring it over to my computer with zero network connectivity.
Granted, this only happened because my network card was broken.
In my old tech bin there's a bag of usb WiFi dongles and a thumb drive with all the drivers.
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.
Yeah I've installed Windows about ten times in the last ten years for various people and I've never encountered any of this. It is as close to flawless as I can ask for.
What kind of weird or shitty NIC you're using that needs a specific driver for Windows?
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.
TP-Link Archer T6E, one of the most popular on the market
The wireless kind, presumably. Those always need their own firmware and therefore their own driver.
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.
I'm not sure how any of the different hardware components I bought to build my system had Windows pre-installed, considering I had to install Windows myself.
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?
When I first tried Windows XP, I had to figure out how to install storage drivers in order to install the OS.
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.
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. Some cheap printers and modems were problematic as well, but if you paid for good hardware, it would probably work.
Do you realize WINXP is TWENTY FOUR years old now???
I do now. Was blissfully unaware of that particular milestone in making my feel my years until you mentioned it, however.
I've only ever had to search for NIC drivers on Linux.
Windows usually packages most drivers into the update process automatically and the device manager page can find whatever drivers you need for whatever hardware it can detect.
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.
Nowadays it's more of a fight against the update-provided drivers though.