On my Job I regularly have to install Windows PCs and sometimes even install the USB Drivers for Mouse and Keyboard to work. Why dont I have to do that on Linux ever? Seems weird not to have them installed on Windows.

    • llii@discuss.tchncs.de
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      6 months ago

      I had the experience recently with two wifi usb sticks. Linux: Work out of the box, no hassle. Windows: One was not supported on Win 11 and caused blue screens, the other only works on USB2 port, not on USB3 and it was a real hassle to finde the right drivers.

      That’s why I don’t understand people who say Windows is easier than Linux.

      • teft@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        Because it hasn’t always been this way. When I was first learning linux you couldn’t guarantee support for any hardware unless you compiled the kernel yourself. Even then you’d run into many problems that would frustrate a non-techy person.

      • dinckel@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        To be fair, it is very important to remember that some community member has put work into making it work, the way that it does. I’m incredibly thankful, that we’re in a position, where OSS outperforms proprietary software in so many ways. Support these people, if possible

        • Richard@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          More often than not, it is the companies themselves that commit drivers for their hardware to the Linux kernel

      • CaptainBasculin@lemmy.ml
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        6 months ago

        My experience with my usb wifi dongle was different. It would work way faster on Windows compared to Linux for some reason until I replugged it some time and ever since it works in similar speeds. I couldnt reproduce what went wrong on the Linux one ever since.

    • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works
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      6 months ago

      Can you explain what you mean by this. I have only a bit of experience with a few distros but hardware issues have always been a bugaboo for me with Linux. This statement seems quite the opposite of my experience. I mean I guess it’s because of the third party proprietary drivers, but that’s a decent chunk of the hardware pie and it’s hard for me not to include that in “better hardware support”

      • exu@feditown.com
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        6 months ago

        There are basically two different approaches to drivers. Windows will have some very basic drivers built-in, but most of them are downloaded and installed when a component that requires them is detected in current versions of Windows.

        Linux on the other hand includes every driver it knows about out of the box. You won’t ever need to install additional drivers if the hardware is supported. This makes Linux an excellent portable system, you can just take a drive out of one pc with an AMD CPU and Nvidia GPU and put it into one with an Intel CPU and AMD GPU without driver issues*.

        *as long as you stick to the included drivers

    • BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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      6 months ago

      Not my experience at all. Always having to deal with hardware compatibility with Linux, for mundane stuff that Windows never even blinks over.

      My best example is a Logitech mouse, arguably the most prolific and popular mouse out there, they don’t work in Linux at all, until you find a third party tool. In Windows, they work immediately, albeit without Logitech’s fancy management utilities. But they just work.

      I see this all the time on Linux, with mundane stuff.

      • ugo@feddit.it
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        6 months ago

        My logitech G900 is plug n play on all my linux installations.

        The same is true for the inexpensive logitech mouse that I have as backup (although it’s a piece of shit of a mouse and what made me decide to avoid logitech like the plague going forward).