Some say that Linux is seriously limited when it comes to scanners. Only a few scanners are Linux compatible.

What are the other major limitations of Linux in your opinion ? Any related info. welcome.

Thank You.

Vijay

oh i dunno. i have a scanner/printer thingamig for a year and i never took it out box. im so lazy its not funny.

You want to avoid scanners with parallel interfaces. A scanner with a usb interface will probably be ok. Check the s.a.n.e. website for info on which models work in linux.

ATI cards are a drawback!.... it almost seems as my old computer (built in graphics, that had to be no more then 64M (maybe 128M at the most) of video ram, after all, this thing as a cheep piece of crap)

AND IT COULD DISPLAY BETTER GRAPHICS THEN THIS LINUX BOX! (with ATI radeon 9200 ... well, at least i can play some games (armatron is my favorite so far )

another drawback i see... is the sound .. not every program supports esd (and in my case, my cheap card only plays sound 1 program at a time, so if the program doesn't use esd, it might not have some at times (in windows the sound was fused together automatically ... and there was no real way for programs to avoid this)

I use Vector Linux, perhaps I can do something better. But I also have a Motherboard with a built in chip that is a real pain. All this leads to poor graphics/color and also sound. Playing movies etc., has also not been possible so far.

Glad I started this discussion. Lots to reflect/learn here.

Vijay

yep, its kinda sad how most linux drawbacks are all hardware related (and most of them are not linux's fault either... the hardware companies sometimes just refuse to release enough info to make drivers, or make shitty drivers at times (*cough ATI! *cough*)

its kinda funny how when buy hardware from them, they wont tell you how to use it ("no, you must use our drivers, we don't tell people how to use the hardware we supply that way they cant make this piece of hardware work good in other OS's!"

This is very true. But with Linux going mainstream, hopefully this will change down the line. Once several shift to Linux, Linux compatible Hardware will be available more and more to grab the business.

Vijay

Summary So Far:
1) Poor Compatible Hardware/Drivers
2) Scanner Limitation
3) Poor Graphics
4) Poor Sound
5) Poor Movies
6) Inability to use Windows Software
7) Most special software is not made for Linux

Keep the limitations comming.

Vijay

ahh..

i wouldn't say poor graphics and sound,.. if you buy the correct hardware you can get great graphics and sound, just make sure to buy hardware that is not only good, but has good drivers made for it (you can have the top of the line hardware, but the vendors might not make drivers for linux that actually let the user use the full power of the device)

movies are another thing, i find quite a few videos i have (took right off my windows partition before frying it with dd) don't play, some just lock up mplayer (well, mplayer just sits there, it'll quite if i ask it to, but it doesn't p[lay sound, or video, just stops when it loads up the sound or something with audio (this happens with real player videos only, tho not all, just half at least of the ones i have)

other videos just wont play period... tho these i feel are a bit window's fault, and realplayer (bad drivers but to be fair, they didn't make them i think) ... windows tends to try and use more drm enabled videos (i downloaded some vids shortly before installing linux (the new hardware was still being shipped) and a few said " in order to play this video you use download this drm package to make your system more drm complaint" ... or something like that: point is... in windows the vids seem to be tags at least a few are, so they cant play without some drm crap, or a license. .. pretty sad

wine / wineX can play some windows softwares

and i find actually, that most special apps are made for linux or UNIX (by special i mean research projects ran by universities, or some other place ... then ported to windows, or stolen my M$ )

Summary of your summary of the limitations of Linux:

1) Not enough software/drivers written for Linux.

wow, at this rate they will be a summery of a summery of a summery of a summery of a summery of a summery of a summery of a summery of a summery of a summery of a few posts in only a few hours

I am a little confused here. I thought all hardware made for Linux don't need drivers.
Eg., I have a hardware modem and doesn't need driver upgrades. Would it be just the
hardware made for windows that need Linux compatible drivers ?

Thanks.

Vijay

Mandrake seems to have hit it big. It has got a Linux Contract with the French Govt. for all the Govt. PCs. Depending on how this goes, 6 months to a year later several other Govts. may follow suite, specially those in Eastern Europe etc., Presently, the Linux business is still rather small. When the big demand occurs, inorder to stay competitive, Mandrake/Linux will be forced to deliver atleast equal if not better than Windows. At that point most drawbacks will disappear.

Even MS may want a part of the Pie and may start offering Linux compatible software.

Vijay

A driver is a way of allowing the OS and communicate with a piece of hardware. The OS in turn exposes these hw capabilities via system calls and APIs to application programs. So in that respect, all hardware need drivers.

Hardware that is designed on very specific standards that do not allow much vendor specific behavior usually have "standard" drivers which are included as part of the kernel (eg IDE). Your hw modem is also such an example as they typically piggyback on the serial port and understand the Hayes modem command set. So the only driver you would need in the serial driver which comes with the kernel.

Others which follow more open-ended specs like PCI or USB will require vendor/model specific drivers.

And for the original issue, my main gripes with Linux are lack of standards: mainly on the desktop and a stable kernel ABI (this, I believe, is the main reason why hw vendors are so reluctant to release drivers, not the market share problem).

This makes sense. With linux going more mainstream hopefully these issues will be resolved. Also, given the present economy even in North America several companies are cutting costs where possible to stay afloat. Hence, more of these may shift to Linux down the road. Even the US Govt. has announced the biggest deficit recently. Wouldn't be surprised if the US Govt. also shifts to Linux.

Vijay