complaining about linux?!
 

I often hear people complaining about linux (including myself sometimes :p) about linux not working out of the box (most of the times meaning that the graphics or wireless card needs a driver).

Hey, I have formatted/installed GUIndows more times than I can remember and it never worked out of the box. I always had to install 4 or more hardware drivers afterwards for the motherboard-graphics card-sound card-network card-tv card-printer to work properly. Not to mention the additional software. :scratch:

The only driver I ever installed on most of the linux distros I have used was the graphics card one (+wireless in one case)!
So stop complaining that much about it!

Well, if you go to a store and buy a computer prepackaged with Windows, the vendor probably has already put all the needed drivers etc. there so it "just works" out of the package when you power it on. This doesn't mean that nothing was done after installing the OS and before packaging the computer for sale; people just acknowledge that a just-bought Windows computer works with the hardware right away and a just-installed Linux might not. Badly pre-installed Windows can easily make you install several drivers before getting anywhere - Vista does, by the way - and on the other hand if you take the time to install Linux and the needed drivers for the specific hardware before handing it out to the customer it works just as easily.

Most people just don't install Windows themselves these days.

The other explanation for this is, as you might have guessed, that Microsoft has a longish history of making desktop operating systems, and during that time (be it long or not, all the same) they have done a lot of deals with manufacturers and computer vendors - which has lead to Windows having quite a good hardware support (excluding Vista for now) for the hardware it's installed onto. Not for rare components, but they don't sell it for use with rare components unless you do it yourself, in which case you find yourself in hunting for nonexistent drivers just like on Linux ;)

But really, if nobody ever complains, nobody ever fixes anything. Thus it's good people complain; if six billion people start crying about something, it's possible something is done for the matter, but if only two complain and the rest stay silent, nobody is interested.

Starting from scratch, with no experience is setting up any OS, Linux is now faster and easier than Windows. Depending on the configuration, the difference can be very large.

The loudest complaint might come from someone who expects to install Linux and have it work "out of the box", when they have never done the equivalent setup for Windows.

I keep Win2K on my main machine, although it is rarely used. Even though I have re-installed it at least 25 times, I still dread the thought.

bOuncer made several good points. I assume the eee PC works out of the box. With more such becoming available, I think it will boost Linux. Window will still have the advantage of all the peripherals coming with a CD with all the drivers and maybe an installation program. Windows, buy a printer, whatever you want or find a good deal on. Stick the CD in and click next. Linux, first go to a website and check lists of compatible hardware. Buy a printer perhaps not the best deal, or exactly the one you wanted. Go to the manufacturer's website and hunt for your driver. Download, unpack, install, and configure.

Comparing installing Windows to installing Linux means nothing to somebody that may not even realize computers have to have a OS installed.

The installation problems (missing drivers etc) are usually more to do with the computer used than the OS used.

I used to sell computers and do LOTS of Windows installs. Computers built by us using popular parts never had any problems at all as Windows had those drivers on the installation disks. Where we ran into problems was with pre-built "brand name" computers (Dell etc) which used oddball or even vendor made devices. Drivers for these simply didn't exist in the Windows installations. Even worse, some platforms would simply fail to install unless you used that particular vendor's installation disks.

One of my buddies had one of these types of units and his kids trashed windows. He bought Win98 since he didn't get installation disks with it (they were an "option" that cost more than a standard MS set) and tried to install. It was only after several calls that we found out he had to use "debug" to set some values on the HD before Win98 would be allowed to work.

As you can imagine, Linux wouldn't have much more success with these boxes than Windows would.

I've never had a computer-related installation problem with Windows or Linux, mostly because I do the Mom & Pop shop custom built computers using ONLY well known card brands and usually just turning off the built in video/sound devices (ethernet usually works pretty well though).

uggg old del machines were the worst,
they even had their own unique pinout for the ram they used so you had to pay 3x the odds for dell branded ram

talk of vendor lock in!