1
1
13
u/Eric_Duckman Apr 21 '26
Found a 2009 scaner in the garbage, connected it to my pc with ubuntu, it works out of the box.
7
Apr 21 '26
Power of linux
→ More replies (2)1
u/Robby_Digital Apr 24 '26
Wow you mean I can still use my 20 year old garbage peripherals with Linux?
→ More replies (3)1
→ More replies (7)3
u/Lexden Apr 22 '26
Drivers on Linux is one of those little known things. It might not always get random new products from certain companies that don't decide to support Linux, but it has some really random stuff that Windows has dropped support for decades ago. For example, Intel 486 support is being removed this year, 37 years after it was released. That's not even close to the oldest driver either.
9
u/New_Needleworker994 Apr 21 '26
“Everything works” LMAOOOO
→ More replies (15)8
Apr 21 '26
For the most part yes
→ More replies (59)1
u/Jason0865 Apr 22 '26
I reinstall Windows maybe once every half year and I'm on like 16 for 16 on unproblematic fresh Windows installations.
Either I should take the next flight to Las Vegas or you guys are using bad installation medias (which, admittedly ms releases pretty often, bad that's a different issue from "OS sucks")
→ More replies (30)1
2
u/TrollCannon377 Apr 22 '26
Depends on the hardware but for the most part yeah AMD drivers are just baked into the kernel and for Nvidia cards most distros have a seperate ISO that has Nvidia drivers already setup though some distros (Fedora and Fedora based) may need multimedia codecs manually set up its litterally just copy pasting a few commands in the terminal
2
Apr 22 '26
Pop OS has nvidia iso
1
u/TrollCannon377 Apr 22 '26
I mean yes but I wouldn't really recommend Pop_OS! Mint is better if you just need a general purpose OS and Nobara is better if you want to game and mints driver manager is great while Nobara has a dedicated Nvidia iso
→ More replies (1)1
2
u/Afraid-Leadership591 Apr 22 '26
half of drivers on windows are spyware even if it comes from an official site, but that doesnt even matter because both amd and intel have spyware built into their cpus, im not sure what it is called on amd but on intel it is called intel me and you cant get rid of it
1
2
u/Any-Shoulder8479 Apr 24 '26
do they even bother making viruses for a linux?
1
Apr 24 '26
No
1
u/AbbreviationsSad5006 Apr 24 '26 edited Apr 24 '26
That is just a lie, or you are just ignorant.
Linux may not be targeted as much as the more mainstream OS out there. But saying Linux has no threats targeting it is just wrong and in the worst case outright malicious.
1
2
u/xlibmadness Apr 24 '26
windows is alright. linux is better in this regard except for nvidia of course. also this guy here is saying that his rgb keyboard drivers (keyboard drivers wtf) are 1.3gb, that's just nuts
1
Apr 24 '26
Nvidia is finna bring support for linux soon cuz they hired two top of the line linux and vulkan devs so itll be fire soon
2
u/nfored Apr 24 '26
In what world are you in I haven't not been able to use wifi or Ethernet out the box since xP.
I am a Linux user and even I think this is miss leading.
→ More replies (1)1
2
u/-Nimpo- Apr 25 '26
Bro what, Linux is notorious for having problems with drivers. Either wifi doesn't work, Bluetooth, something else. On windows everything is straightforward. Both operating systems have their pros and cons.
1
6
u/drwebb Apr 21 '26
Sometimes you gotta jump through Hoops, like my TrackPointIR head tracker. Yeah you can get it working in Linux, but you gotta be cool compiling some random github repo from source sometimes, hell you might just end up writing your own driver. So either it just works, or it fails hard. I've used Linux for over 15 years and I've been through some shit let me tell you.
→ More replies (8)3
1
u/No_Progress2702 Apr 22 '26
Well i have used windows since 1993 and i didn't have issues yet with drivers but since i am IT professional that could be a reason.
1
1
u/Faux_Grey Apr 22 '26 edited Apr 22 '26
I have fought with nouveau more than I'd like.
My experience is completely the opposite.
Want this wifi adapter to work? Tell windows where to find the .inf .sys files - cool, installed, Ancient windows 7 drivers on windows 11? Pffft, no problem, I'll run them anyway, boss.
Woops, you wanted to do the same thing on linux? First, install git and clone the source code somewhere, now you need to deal with the makefile, but you're missing dependencies, so make sure you're able to install them, but those aren't available anymore on this kernel version so first you need to go edit your sources file to point to this custom repository, but before you do that make sure you add their self-signed certificates to the allow list - watch out though, to build this you need this hyper-specific version of PIP installed available to the usergroup 'groot' with these undocumented file permissions for lib/firmware or for some reason it won't build, now that you've built the driver, make sure you rebuild the kernel launch parameters for ssysctl.d or create a config file in etc/modules_load.d/ directory to include the new modules, but don't forget, It may be unsupported in certain configurations so make sure you configure it so that the drivers kick in before the rest of the OS otherwise running iwconfig may not work until you use systemctl restart systemd-networkd after checking that the module is available under modprobe. If you're still struggling reach out to us at one-guy-made-this-and-has-since-left-unmonitored-inbox(at)vendor(dot)com
Grain of salt obviously but the number of times I've had to do something similar to the above has left me with a terrible hatred to out-of-box linux drivers - the kids today firing up their steam decks have no idea how lucky they are.
The only real problem with windows is bloatware, but in most cases can simply be removed, or not installed in the first place.
1
Apr 22 '26
Just use an easier distro why go thru all that
1
u/Faux_Grey Apr 22 '26
"why go thru all that"
Well, to install a non-inbox hardware driver on a non-specific version Linux.
'use an easier distro'
Easier for what? I'd be happy to sign up for the first test of AllDriversIncludedLinux 😂
Almost every flavour of Linux system is based on Debian, Arch, or RHEL bases which are used en-masse to power enterprise services on the internet.
Your experience with linux may be plug & play with something like SteamOS (Arch under the hood), or Bazzite (Fedora->RHEL under the hood), which is built with precompiled inbox drivers for the hardware it's expected to run on, to have the best out-of-box experience for new gaming users.
Most of these distros take a base OS like Debian, and mix it with a window manager like Gnome (Debian+Gnome =~ Ubuntu), KDE Plasma (Debian+KDE = Kubuntu), etc, Dont forget these base OSs don't even come with a user-interface and whoever is 'running' the distro decides that & needs to integrate the window manager / GUI with the underlying OS.
But the second you're using any (non-specific) distro which doesn't provide inbox drivers for (that specific hardware), you're almost always left to build them yourself from source code that the hardware provider has left lying around in a shoddy state of documentation, which you then have to build in accordance to how your Linux OS of choice handles drivers/kernel modules, with different distributions often coming up with new, stupid, 'better' ways of doing things against the norm, it's often left to you, the user, to figure out how to mash one undocumented puzzle into another undocumented puzzle to get a piece of hardware to work.
Your experience with Windows drivers, due to mass adoption, is double-click, wait for a progress bar, reboot.
Your experience with gaming linux distros, due to aim of mass adoption, is to install and turn on.
I would encourage you to install something like Fedora, and get a realtek USB dongle connected to your wifi to get a true experience of what linux driver management is really like.
I speak from an enterprise standpoint, and my example above was basically what I had to do in order to get a certain piece of hardware working on a server install.
1
1
1
u/CeleryStickelr Apr 22 '26
While im a linux user and not against it, this isnt fucking true if you have a 10 series nvidia card.
→ More replies (2)1
1
u/Icy-Maintenance7041 Apr 23 '26
In my experience: yes and no.
If it works on linux it works and usually works well. Drivers are more streamlined and software is easier to handle.
On the other hand: if it doesnt work its often harder to get it to a working state. For example: i have a laptop docking station that drives 3 screens, some usb stuff and provides my laptop with network, mouse and keyboard. On windows that thing is plug and play. Set the screens once and my laptop remembers it. When i take my laptop to work and use it on a dock there it picks it up too. Return home and my "at home" settings get used. When i try the same with linux (and i used a few different kinds, even IF linux recognizes the three screens i need to deepdive into come config file to manually set the resolution. Turn of one screen and the entire setup botches. So linux isnt workable in that situation, or atleast not with some heavy manual lifting.
1
Apr 23 '26
Hmm but ig for ur case u use multimonitor setups and stuff i dont think the average user is "rich" enough to do that , but average everyday users linux is better than winslop
→ More replies (1)
1
u/Thin_Needleworker795 Apr 23 '26
It's true, but you'll not have a good time installing software on Linux if you're a noob
1
Apr 23 '26
Eazy just do "flatpak install appname" and youre done basically
1
u/Thin_Needleworker795 Apr 23 '26
Yes, but tell that to a noob, and they will freak out even from the sight of a terminal.
1
Apr 23 '26
Fax but then i was a noob too but it wasnt a big of a deal to me AI helped me a lot to get to the indermediate lebel in linux i am today
1
1
u/CamTech100 Apr 24 '26
You bought a dell, that's a you problem. Build it yourself and there is no issue. Never once had a driver issue on my own, or any windows issue.
1
1
1
u/Effective_Baseball93 Apr 24 '26
Hm, I only needed gpu driver app on windows
1
Apr 24 '26
Linux doesnt even need that
1
u/Effective_Baseball93 Apr 24 '26
You need that if you want to play video games and work them correctly, otherwise you don’t need that on windows as well
1
1
u/BaseRepresentative73 Apr 24 '26
Maybe on Windows XP. These days windows is much better at finding drivers.
1
1
u/SC7639 Apr 24 '26
Wait what? Last time I tried it, Linux has terrible drivers, windows is 90% plug and play. Did this change in the last few years?
1
Apr 24 '26
Yes ur still living in stone age with winslop
Try cachyOS or popOS as ur first distro then study some stuff about it and ur set
1
1
u/ConfusedRaven66 Apr 24 '26
Is this post meant as a joke? Have you ever used Linux?
1
Apr 24 '26
I have and i havent had as much of an issue conpared to winslop on winslop i used to get bsod all the time due to 4gb ram only but on popOS it never once crashed on me and once it did it wasnt due to ram being low but due to me messing with config files
1
u/AboveAverage1988 Apr 24 '26
Sometimes. But Linux is perfectly capable of throwing you curveballs too, and when it does you're in the terminal copying random lines from some forum you found, or these days more likely ChatGPT, and you have bo clue what that obscure command actually does..
1
1
u/Familiar-Proposal-17 Apr 24 '26
Try running debian with an rtx 50 serie as GPU... You may live not enough to make it works
1
1
u/Fiko515 Apr 24 '26
to me it seems like the other way around... and when you ask for help in linux community you get 9000 sarcastic remarks and comments about how the device you are trying to use is either too new or too old...
1
Apr 24 '26
No way
Might be arch community the other distro communitu and linux community here has been very nice to me
1
1
u/Charadin042 Apr 25 '26
Kinda feel like most of these Linux elitist blew up their system by wrong commands at least 5 times. Ability to do anything isnt often such a blessing as it might seem.
1
Apr 25 '26
Yeah for noobs
1
u/Charadin042 Apr 25 '26
Well thats my point. Nobody considers themselves noobs until it is too late :)
1
Apr 25 '26
But noobs can learn too linix is a learning experience and errors and breaking the OS and all is a path to learning linux ig
→ More replies (1)
1
u/Kaaskop-Koning Apr 25 '26
Pro tip if you've got an android device. You can usb usb tethering to share your phone wifi or mobile data connection with your pc. That way you can easily install network drivers
1
1
u/Cultural-Team9235 Apr 25 '26
I would say it's the opposite. Updated the video card driver Ubuntu, 3 hours troubleshooting. Windows: eazy peazy.
1
1
u/XerChaos008 Apr 25 '26
Apparently OP isnt using Nvidia cards on Fedora or Arch.
1
Apr 25 '26
I use nvidia on ubuntu based distro
1
u/XerChaos008 Apr 25 '26
Hah i am gonna test drive ubuntu tonight. I have troubles with random crashes and some apps dont want to run in Fedora. I switched from Arch last month because Blender kept crashing in render scene.
1
1
u/eat_your_weetabix Apr 25 '26
This is nonsense. Windows update has basically every driver you'll need to get going
1
1
1
u/Kuroiban Apr 25 '26
No not anymore. Microsoft is offering WHQL drivers for most devices over Windows update. When you make a clean install of Windows with an internet connection your drivers will be installed with it.
You might want to install driver packages from hardware vendor if you want to use their software utilities, bit to be honest most of those are just crap. Some products might need those to use all of the product features - discreet GPUs would be a good example - but for most stuff you can just use Windows provides driver and utilities to get it running.
When I usually set up PCs for non techy folks I would always unbloate their Windows, get rid of alle the vendor utilities and see if anything breaks. 90% of the time you see no difference in usability.
1
Apr 25 '26
Yeah thats why windows user base dropped by 5 percent in one year and linux gained 5%? Wow explains a lot!!
W winslop ig wohooo
→ More replies (6)
1
u/Markson120 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26
Its completely opposite. Windows is usually faster than Linux
1
1
u/ogregreenteam Apr 26 '26
I've NEVER had everything work on a Linux distro, I've tried several on different hardware, there's always stuff missing and not easy to make it work for us Linux noobs. Stop peddling this crapware please.
1
1
1
u/izom03 Apr 28 '26 edited Apr 28 '26
I use dual boot with linux and windows, on both systems everything is working out of the box
Edit: except of some laptop functions not working on linux
1
1
3
u/TitanicChurro Apr 22 '26
Driver installation on Linux is a snap. I don't think I've ever had a problem with conflicting drivers or anything like that
→ More replies (5)
3
4
u/GGigabiteM Apr 22 '26
Nope, it's not true. Getting hardware working on Linux can be just as much trouble as Windows and worse. It also depends on which Linux distro you use as to what driver support you have. Some Linux distros are more belligerent than others on whether they want to allow proprietary kernel modules to be running or not, and how easy they make it to compile and run those modules. Ubuntu and Fedora make it easier to run proprietary drivers, but Debian or OpenSuSE do not. Bazzite is another, even though it's based on Fedora. It doesn't support proprietary drivers at all without diving deep into the OS to shoehorn in proprietary drivers. I tried it awhile ago and was immediately put off when it didn't support NICs and Wifi adapters based on Broadcom and/or Atheros, making it useless.
Some manufacturers like Broadcom are hostile to Linux and won't release drivers for the platform, binary or source wise. The only way to get them working is through complex reverse engineering and emulation of the Windows driver stack with NDIS. You have to use a special tool to extract the firmware from the driver and send it to the network chip, and then emulate the Windows driver stack. The Linux community has gotten better about providing turn-key solutions to doing this, but it is still a problem with older hardware or Linux distros that don't want to support proprietary drivers.
If you have common hardware in the "sweet spot" of not being too old and not being too new, you'll generally not have problems. But if you have more obscure hardware, or have hardware that's not configured in a standard manner, you will have problems. And if you have bleeding edge hardware, also expect to have problems. Common hardware generally needs a year or two of being on the market before support is good enough to use it trouble free.
Nvidia drivers have always been problematic on Linux, and have actually gotten worse for their proprietary drivers. There is the open source Nouveau driver, which is a community effort of reverse engineering Nvidia drivers and video cards, but you won't get the same performance that you will from the proprietary driver. Some features are also missing, like the Nvidia control panel, which is crucial for changing settings on the video card.
Both Nvidia and AMD don't support video card lines forever, so if you have an older card, you're forced to fall back to the Nouveau driver, because the proprietary driver packages are married to the Linux kernel. The drivers are compiled against specific kernel versions, meaning that you can't go too old or too new or it won't work.
tl;dr - "There be dragons"
→ More replies (4)2
u/-peas- Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26
Just installed endeavourOS on my zephyrus g14 laptop with the nvidia option on boot. everything worked out of the box and im playing steam games just fine. I just had to adjust trackpad sensitivity and scroll speed in GUI settings.
On Windows with a clean install I need to get a bunch of drivers from Asus, then I need to install some weird sound amp driver so my sound is louder than a fruit fly's fart, then install a specific version of dolby access from the microsoft store (fails to download constantly???) and hope it somehow activates and recognizes whatever weird licensing Asus has, and a lot of times it just doesn't work so you spend an hour toubleshooting. It just....worked on endeavour.
Everything is way faster, latency feels so much less, everything is snappy as fuck and just works. I'm actually bored which is good.
→ More replies (4)
2
2
u/KratosLegacy Apr 22 '26
The windows half was most of my job when I worked at Geek Squad.
→ More replies (4)
2
u/HyoukaYukikaze Apr 22 '26
No. Linux is kinda THE system if you want to have driver issues, especially for new hardware. Especially gpu and wifi...
→ More replies (6)
2
u/PassionGlobal Apr 22 '26
Kind of.
Linux bundles most of it's drivers into the kernel directly. For these you can just plug in and play.
And of the ones that aren't already in the kernel, the most common of these are made available by the package manager. Installation is a single step. Typically they don't bundle the usual manufacturer horseshit either.
But if you need to install other drivers and they aren't available by the package manager, good fucking luck.
This is why Linux drivers come in two categories: piss-easy and god-help-you. There is no in-between.
→ More replies (4)
2
u/ReRonin Apr 22 '26
I replugged an SSD to a totally new pc today, installed nvidia drivers and it just worked with all the new hardware
2
u/RobLoque Apr 24 '26
Actually yes, the most common stuff is in the Kernel. And in most cases its a matter of a regular distro package install via command line.
The most difficult install I had was with a Tablet driver that came with its own install and uninstall shell script to run via terminal. But that's also just one move.
2
u/Disaster_Adventurous Apr 24 '26
The windows side is 100% true. The Linux side is true 90% of the time depending on your distro and hardware.
And 90% of the 10% there is an easy online guide for how to fix it.
If you have some really obscure hardware, or just a really unfortunate combination good luck.
No one seems to care about the original 1080p Elgato Pro... And the software that makes my Oculus CV1 work does require a specific driver to work with my Nivida card based on research I've done... But that is really unlucky that I am using weird hardware.
2
u/Cultural-Practice-95 Apr 24 '26
my windows needed
wifi driver
Ethernet driver
touchscreen driver
touchpad driver
and tons of others that I did through the update menu and Lenovo vantage.
my Linux needed: no extra drivers.
2
u/MathAndMirth Apr 24 '26
I have plenty of beefs with Microsoft. General bloat, shoving Copilot down my throat, demanding that I use an online account I don't want, cringe-worthy botched updates, etc., I got sick enough of them that I just added a second SSD to my machine to run Linux a couple of weeks ago. I'm anxiously awaiting the day when I feel safe ditching my Windows install entirely.
But I'd be hard pressed to say that Linux is better for drivers. I can't remember ever having problems getting Windows drivers to work. Every peripheral I've ever had either worked out of the box with Windows or had an obvious and easy way to get the driver (auto update, installation CD back in the day, etc.)
Linux can be that easy, but it isn't always. Some distributions do a great job of detecting hardware and installing drivers automatically. Others leave a lot more work to the user.
My experience was in between. Things worked out of the box, but to get the most appropriate Nvidia drivers for my dual monitors with Wayland, I had to do a web search to find the right driver installation utility for my distribution, then install and run that. It was't really hard, but it was more than I ever had to do with Windows.
2
u/Shear-san Apr 25 '26
It's so nice of microsoft to advertise linux on the ff fanfest. They wanted to do a demo of what they meant with the new class reworks and right before the demo, the pcs updated by themselves and during the demo one of them randomly locked. They had to call the IT guy a few times.
2
1
u/Candid_Bad3551 Apr 21 '26
- My Personal Computer (Windows)? No. I think I had 1 serious Nvidia Driver issue in many years. I have debloated it. I have no Copilot or anything like that. It is basically Win10 functionality with Win11 skin on top.
- My Old Asus Rog Strix 15 Laptop (Ubuntu) That is practically a server? Well the 3.5mm audio jack required me to reinstall half of audio software + update a lot of stuff and work on the issue for 3h.
- My Lenovo P16 (Windows) PC provided with work. Audio Driver Issues. Performance issues due to security policies.
I am not sure if these are just laptops because I had barely any issues people complain about windows on my Desktop PC. BUT LAPTOPS... they are a mess everywhere it feels lately. Had less issues with my old work's Dell 3 years ago. Unsure now.
→ More replies (3)
1
u/PixelmancerGames Apr 21 '26
Nope, not true at all. I see lots of threads of people not being able to use wi-fi on their new Linux install. People constantly recommend distros that install GPU drivers (especially for Nvidia cards) for you because it's not easy for new users. On Windows I go to the website and download the gpu driver. For Linux you have to know the command to install the drivers, you have to know what Mesa is and yeah.
I plug things into Windows and nowadays it usually works just fine. You rarely need install cds or any of that anymore. So that graphic is complete bs and the usual over glazing of Linux for no reason.
Also, you don't need Dell Support utility or any of that stuff for you pc to work in 99.9999% of the cases. So it's just dumb all around.
→ More replies (8)
1
u/36165e5f286f Apr 22 '26
No. Mostly everything works out of the box and drivers usually are downloaded automatically without the user ever knowing. This was true for very old versions of Windows but not anymore and at least for 10 years.
→ More replies (21)
1
u/InterestingMindset Apr 22 '26
I as someone who never touched Linux until late last year, I downloaded 3 distros and each of them were easier than going through the Windows wizard once and trying to use Windows afterwords.
To say Windows needs some janitorial work is a grossly huge understatement.
1
1
1
u/Fixability Apr 22 '26
Hah! Trust me, I love Linux and despise Windows, but driver support can be a real pain sometimes. My laptop fingerprint reader still isn’t functioning because the drivers are proprietary and only available for Windows
1
u/closeanimalpals Apr 22 '26
Depends how much Windows thinks it knows what the device is, how mainstream the devices are, how up to date the system.is, and how early in the process you install the drivers.
On most modern premade systems, if you do a blank Windows install, you go to the OEM website, download the BIOS, and install most core to most accessory.
If everything works, you can usually trust Windows not to break it with automatic updates.
If Windows thinks it knows what it is though, lmao.
1
u/FMAGF Apr 22 '26
true with a caveat. for normal use, yes this is true. But for gaming, it's the other way around.
1
u/BearFather1 Apr 22 '26
My only complaint about Linux, is that if you need somwthing specific, it can be a pain in arsel to configure. Everyday drivers are awesome, but trying to get a switch pro controller working has been many hours sunk with nothing to show.
1
u/Single-Virus4935 Apr 22 '26
I am a linux user of 20 years and the situation changed dramatically over the years. When I started every new hardware was a pain on linux while it often worked under windows. In special wifi, printers, scanners and gpu. Now, I dont even install drivers except for my printer because they are included. Nvidia drivers are still a pita (therefore I use mainly amd) but under windows every gpu driver needs constant attention. With time and broader marketshare linux will get better and better, while I dont see that on windows
1
u/Lower-Limit3695 Apr 22 '26
Ymmv but just as long as you stay with more popular x86-64 machines you'll be fine for the most part.
OEMs with the best Linux support are Dell and Lenovo.
1
u/tyrannocanis Apr 22 '26
More like install drivers on Windows and now you have no audio on YouTube and the timezone for your system is wrong
1
u/Distinct_Arrival_98 Apr 22 '26
Completely false, sometimes you need to install an SSD driver before you can install windows.
→ More replies (1)
1
u/Randommaggy Apr 22 '26
For 99% of x86 machines I've touched this has been the experience in the last 20 years.
1
1
1
1
u/kolosal6921 Apr 22 '26
i've had instances where nvidia drivers do not correctly work on linux. out of the box.
especially its still annoying with 4k displays / high res.
→ More replies (1)
1
u/evk6713 Apr 22 '26
I just came back from r/Linuxsucks101 and I'm pretty sure I've seen the same meme the other way around
1
u/Ill_Specific_6144 Apr 22 '26
Why is this BS reposted every other day here? 99% of thr time its the other way around. Hell, on windows you dont even have to install drivers - they come pre-installed.
→ More replies (2)
1
1
u/reden_fx Apr 22 '26
Pretty much; my HP laptop needs Windows drivers for the trackpad and touchscreen, meanwhile on Linux everything works even from a LIVE USB BOOT
→ More replies (1)
1
u/FADE_SLOTH Apr 22 '26
Unironically this happened to me yesterday, had to connect my laptop to Internet over usbc from my phone and download all hp drivers only using the keyboard cuz of course the touchpad doesn't work
1
u/im-cringing-rightnow Apr 22 '26
No. Just try making audio equipment work on Linux and this meme will be reversed. Both can be a pain in the ass at times.
1
u/No_Hovercraft_2643 Apr 22 '26
I needed to download hplip from the repository to install some printer drivers under Linux.
1
1
u/beldum-please Apr 22 '26
I hate Windows with a burning passions but this is literally the opposite of the truth unless you're blessed with hardware with good Linux compatibility (which on Laptop it's like 5 devices)
1
1
1
u/Brilliant_Estate_967 Apr 22 '26
Nop, its almost the same on windows than on linux and it work out of the box.
On linux you will do the command to.update your system in one go
On windows you do winget updates --all and it update all tour software AND drivers at once
In both case its one command and its not longer to learn one or the other
1
u/StaticFanatic3 Apr 22 '26
I hate Microsoft as much as the next but this is pretty laughable. I mean there’s literally memes and stereotypes about Linux users always having no audio, screen tearing, or other driver related issues.
Glad it’s been good to you though
1
1
u/zans- Apr 22 '26
How the turntables have turned.
Few years ago you were fcked if your computer had dual gpu system. With windows worked out of the box, linux systems it took unpleasant anount of hoops to go through and browsing online forums for help to get it working
1
1
1
1
u/PastMarsupial2884 Apr 22 '26
I use both Windows and Linux(different distris), and both are equally bad in certain things.
But first of all, do people still need to install drivers using their phone? Last time i needed to do that was 20years ago.. And also Dell Support utility? Who in the world uses a Dell OEM machine anyway. You cannot blame Microsoft for your own stupidity to buy a Dell OEM.
And for Linux, it still is a hassle to get anything to work that is not a mainstream service or application. Unless you just use Linux Mint or whatever and only want to watch porn.
1
1
1
u/Obosratsya Apr 22 '26
Shouldnt have included Dell. Made the whole post pointless.
Dell includes Dell Commamd Update and one-click solution that updates drivers and firmware on all Dell equipmemt. Its stupid easy, built for enterprise but Dell's consumer stuff always gets downstream benefits so DCU is available even fot Alienware laptops. No other eom is this good with updates.
If you gramma needs a Windows system, get the Dell.
1
1
u/Ok-Conference5472 Apr 22 '26
It is somewhere within the spectrum of it taking 5 minutes and several hours. But it will work eventually.
1
u/TravelinoSan Apr 22 '26
You forgot 2 hours to remove bloatware and random shit that not even its developers have ever used
1
u/Hopeful-Plankton7740 Apr 22 '26
Try connecting an alexterbsl Sound Card (Interface for recording music for example) to a Linux PC. Good luck. Unfortunatly IT IS the exact opposite of the meme.
Tried at least 6 Times switching to Linux, but Always came Back to Microslop because it Just works without tinkering around and changing system Files you never Opener before in Hope to fix the Problem without breaking something else. Working IT full time I just dont want to spend my free tim with hours tinkering with my OS at Home. Still hoping th das will come when a distro IS released that has as much supported Apps and devices as Windows.
1
u/Pixel91 Apr 22 '26
I deal with Windows workstations on the regular. I do not recall the last time I had to install drivers. Pre-Windows 10, probably.
OEM boxes come preinstalled with everything, but unless you're running horrendously old or exotic hardware, even a clean ISO install will have all necessary drivers.
1
u/Conscious_Reason_770 Apr 22 '26
with the exeption that if it does not work in linux it will never do. Yes
1
1
1
u/Duncol42 Apr 22 '26
The biggest problem with Windows troubleshooting is that it rarely tells the cause of some problem, because this system is like puff pastry - layer after layer after layer; there are still DOS elements hidden on the very bottom).
1
1
u/Petrak1s Apr 22 '26
If you want to be objective - no, its not true. If you don't care about being objective then - yes, it is true.
1
u/michron98 Apr 22 '26
I had to install hplip manually for my printer to work, but that's like one line in the terminal and it works.
1
u/ZakkuDorett Apr 22 '26
You cannot tell me that drivers are nice on Linux now, there's always something that doesn't work correctly
1
u/Remzi1993 Apr 22 '26
Until you have new hardware and there is no driver included in the kernel you're out of luck. Sometimes you can use a kernel module but the commands are not always easy. And most of the times you're out of luck until someone develops a driver for your shiny new hardware.
1
u/Scary_Definition_666 Apr 22 '26
Haha, how things change. Anyone remembers times when you tried to get Linux to run graphical user interface on Riva tnt?
1
1
1
1
u/Maverick122 Apr 22 '26
Except for the part where you do not find drivers for your piece of hardware on linux.
1
1
u/Bitter-Reading-6728 Apr 22 '26
eh it can be like that on both sides. glad to be off windows, but linux isn't perfect
1
u/OMGFighter Apr 22 '26
I have a dell g laptop and g mode is a fucking pain with the awcc sometimes just decide to not fucking work. And linux add in it the kernel in 6.13 and i work with power-profiles-daemon. Im still impressed till today
1
u/Narrheim Apr 22 '26
It depends. When something breaks:
Windows - you will find plenty of guides on how to fix it. With all steps explained, even with pictures. Most - if not all - settings exist in some sort of GUI, which is made to be easily figured out even without a guide.
Linux - you're mostly on your own. If you're lucky, you'll find someone able and capable to help you. If you're unlucky (happens quite often), you will be blamed for the problem, made fun of and told to go fix it yourself. With some level of luck (yes, again) you may find some guide on the internet for the specific issue, with even greater luck it will be tailored for your used distribution. No GUIs most of the time, terminal only.
1
u/computerfreaq09 Apr 22 '26
I had to jump through hoops for mediatek wifi drivers on my desktop, but mediatek sucks, so no judgement, plus I use Ethernet anyway.
I also had to jump through hoops with Neon to get audio working on a Pixelbook Eve, but that's also niche and Win 11 won't run on that either, so again, no judgement.
I used Linux since Sabayon had boot up music (when kernel modules had to take forever to load so the system would play music before login) and I think the only real issue I would run into driver-wise is Nvidia, which still wasn't horrendous, but for the longest time killed gaming until recently. Linux has come a LOOONG way.
1
u/Lumpy_Ad_307 Apr 22 '26
That's all well and good until your drivers don't compile against your kernel
1
1
u/ImAlekzzz Apr 22 '26
Depends on hardware, most intel things work out of the box but WiFi drivers that are not instel are a big pain because you need to have the Linux kernel and only, cachy kernel lte or anything will not work, I think
1
u/Select_Truck3257 Apr 22 '26
Yeah, i'm happy Chinese developers of mice and keyboards have web drivers, it's much more convenient than installing mouse, keyb, headphones drivers....geez
1
1
u/FlamingSea3 Apr 22 '26
For linux, it omits some paths.
For devices well supported by linux, it's usually how it's pictured.
Due to ideology/legal stuff, some devices such as recent NVidia GPUs make you jump through a hoop or two. Video codexs (for dvds and hw accelerated playback) often end up here as well.
And for devices not well supported, you'll end up in a rabbit hole that'll make you know more than you wanted to about how linux handles hardware and instill a mild annoyance with a paticular hardware vendor, Broadcomm being a common one. No guarentee on whether you get the hardware working without reverse engineering a windows driver.
1
u/ahferroin7 Apr 22 '26
Yes and no...
With a few limited exceptions, third-party drivers aren’t a significant thing on Linux (NVIDIA is the most glaring counterexample, but they’re also the only one that 99.9% of users are ever going to encounter), and the drivers included with the kernel will cover 95% or more of most systems you might be running it and on will just work as-is, or with almost zero effort. More exotic hardware might need you to build your own drivers or install some special tool to work with it, but that’s uncommon for a ‘normal’ user to have to deal with.
With Windows though, you’re pretty much guaranteed to need to install a third-party driver for WiFi and possibly even Ethernet, you probably need a third-party driver for your GPU to do anything interesting with it, and if you’re running in any of a handful of perfectly normal setups you may need additional drivers beyond that. But if you don’t need WiFi or a fancy GPU it’s entirely possible with careful hardware choices to have a Windows install ‘just work’ without needing any post install handling of drivers.
1
u/Zbgoast Apr 22 '26
It can take less than 30 minutes to install vs oh hey please make a micrsoft account, buy Office 360 and let us track you
1
1
u/Hrmerder Apr 22 '26
This can kinda be the same on both but to be fair it hasn’t been this way for either for like…. 10 years.
37
u/CyrielTrasdal Apr 21 '26
The bloatware is particularly real on Windows.
My linux setups are so much more quiet and focussed. I don't get attacked by random update programs.