Driver Request
Forum rules
Do not post support questions here. Before you post read: Where to post ideas & feature requests
Do not post support questions here. Before you post read: Where to post ideas & feature requests
Driver Request
Would it be possible to have a driver request where a user can request a driver for lets say a perfectly good piece of hardware that is unusable for the want of a simple piece of software,I am a new convert to Linux and not nearly as computer literate as most on here so please excuse my ignorance if this idea is ridiculous but I notice when I read any comparisons between Linux & Windows one of the main negatives levelled at Linux is hardware compatibility (I myself have a scanner that seems to have no driver available in Linux and therefore unusable) and it often makes me wonder how many converts to Linux have returned to Windows simply because they cant get their printer to work or some other device, anyway it's just a thought
Re: Driver Request
sorry to hear your having trouble. Have a look on here: http://www.linux-drivers.org/ and here https://www.linux.com/news/hardware/dri ... d-out-here
Hopefully that can help you sort it out.
Hopefully that can help you sort it out.
Re: Driver Request
The problem here is money. Your money to be specific, and how you have spent it in the past. You paid money to buy a scanner from a manufacturer that doesn't support Linux (at least, that's what we're assuming--perhaps newer models of theirs do have Linux support). There are other manufacturers of scanners that do support Linux, or for which unaffiliated developers have reverse engineered drivers for Linux because they themselves were in the same situation as you.
It's really a chicken and egg situation, but one you have a direct influence on as a consumer. You hold the power here. Not enough people are asking for Linux compatibility and so some manufacturers keep their head in the sand and don't move to support Linux. Where should you request a driver? From the manufacturer that you paid your hard earned money to!
Hindsight is 20/20 and looking back you spent you money unwisely (but you couldn't know that at the time, as you where then still using Windows I assume). You bought a scanner which its manufacturer didn't support on Linux, while there are other manufacturers that did. You gave money to a manufacturer that doesn't have the same interests as you. Unwise move
If you're not a developer yourself or not willing to invest time to learn how to write your own driver, then there's only a few avenues left to you:
- Mope about it and use Windows for your scanner
- Start asking the manufacturer to support Linux for your scanner
- Pay somebody to develop the driver
- Sell it and buy another one that does have Linux support (or trade it)
Okay, and you could do the first open, wait till it breaks or doesn't meet your needs any longer, and then buy a new one that does support Linux In any case, manufacturers will only start supporting Linux when they're bothered enough times about it that the coin drops for them that they will be losing business if they don't start supporting Linux. There are many manufacturers that have seen the light so to speak, and are leveraging Linux to expand their business in other ways also.
Even from manufacturers that don't support Linux, many will run embedded Linux on the peripherals that they make. Though the sales people you'll talk to of course won't have a clue about that
It's really a chicken and egg situation, but one you have a direct influence on as a consumer. You hold the power here. Not enough people are asking for Linux compatibility and so some manufacturers keep their head in the sand and don't move to support Linux. Where should you request a driver? From the manufacturer that you paid your hard earned money to!
Hindsight is 20/20 and looking back you spent you money unwisely (but you couldn't know that at the time, as you where then still using Windows I assume). You bought a scanner which its manufacturer didn't support on Linux, while there are other manufacturers that did. You gave money to a manufacturer that doesn't have the same interests as you. Unwise move
If you're not a developer yourself or not willing to invest time to learn how to write your own driver, then there's only a few avenues left to you:
- Mope about it and use Windows for your scanner
- Start asking the manufacturer to support Linux for your scanner
- Pay somebody to develop the driver
- Sell it and buy another one that does have Linux support (or trade it)
Okay, and you could do the first open, wait till it breaks or doesn't meet your needs any longer, and then buy a new one that does support Linux In any case, manufacturers will only start supporting Linux when they're bothered enough times about it that the coin drops for them that they will be losing business if they don't start supporting Linux. There are many manufacturers that have seen the light so to speak, and are leveraging Linux to expand their business in other ways also.
Even from manufacturers that don't support Linux, many will run embedded Linux on the peripherals that they make. Though the sales people you'll talk to of course won't have a clue about that