Re: Hardware hassles: Linux vs. Windows

From: Christian Convey (conveycj_at_npt.nuwc.navy.mil)
Date: 12/15/04

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    Date: Wed, 15 Dec 2004 12:23:35 -0500
To: debian-user <debian-user@lists.debian.org>

    Alvin Oga wrote:
    > On Wed, 15 Dec 2004, Christian Convey wrote:
    >
    >
    >>Hi guys,
    >>
    >>Recently I've spent a lot of time digging through udev / hotplug issues,
    >>getting to know modprobe, modules.conf, alsaconf, XF86Config-4 etc.
    >>This was all to get a digicam and a flashdrive to be useful, or to make
    >>sound/video work.
    >
    >
    > things do "just plug it in and it works"

    [snip]
    >
    > - the point .. use a good installer and supported hardware and the
    > problems does NOT exist
    >
    > c ya
    > alvin
    >

    I used Sarge's new installer, which I think most people reckon to be
    pretty good. And yet I've still had these issues.

    But the issues I've faced would, I think, mainly be issues that arise
    after the OS is installed. So I'm not sure this can be entirely chalked
    up to the quality of the distro's installer.

    For example: I plug in a USB trackball, and on Windows it just works
    (although it might prompt me to supply a driver). When I did this on
    linux, I had to tinker with gpm, and I had to modify my XF86Config-4
    file as well.

    Another example: I plug in a usb flashdrive, and I have to go much with
    the udev rules manually to assign it a filename that's based on the
    drive's identity or volume info.

    I'm not complaining - I get far more than what I paid for with Debian.
    I'm mostly just curious about whether the difference in user experiences
    is a necessary consequence of Linux's hardware model, or is it due to
    some other factor?

    Possible factors I can think of include:
    - The Bazzare development model leads to people spending energy
       developing multiple approaches (i.e., alsa vs. arts, x.org vs. xf86
       vs. ...) rathre than putting all our efforts towards polishing one
       particular model.

    - People don't want to muck with Linux's flexibility. I.e., perhaps
       making USB keychains "just work" would require fixating certain
       details of device handling. I.e., it would require giving up some
       of the flexibility that udev / hotplug currently permit via
       user-supplied rules. 

    -- 
Christian Convey
Computer Scientist,
Naval Undersea Warfare Center
Newport, RI
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