Linux Hardware Support Myths

[Aging Technogeek]

Found this article while surfing the net. Interesting.

http://broadcast.oreilly.com/2012/05/linux-hardware-support-myths-a.html

[esteban1uy]

"Linux is compatible with more hardware than any other OS bar none. That certainly includes Windows. Try installing Windows 7 on some random laptop from scratch and see how much is missing or unsupported without third party drivers."

It is sometimes so difficult to make novice users understand that certain lacks of out-of-the-box hardware support is not a fault of Linux but of the manufacturers of such hardware.

[DrHu]

The salient fact is that Linux (at least in the past) has supported more device types (hardware: they have fallen down on modems, but that is no surprise, who is using a modem these days) than windows OS has: however the newest hardware/gadget is always being supported by windows OS first( possibly due to OEM requirements/deal manufacturer + Microsoft, or alternatively that Linux is a niche OS, just like Apple OSX
--despite any propaganda to the contrary

Microsoft OS + Office suite (local or live/finally web based) + browser IS xx (now at 8) still has 95+ percent of the total OS marketplace, by their counts

One could argue about the percentages, but it is a minor quibble, we all know that Microsoft has the most of the market..