Ah yes, windows where I have to somehow figure out how to install the drivers for my network adapter before I can actually connect to the internet, on top of having to go to a different website for each device that needs a driver to find the correct one, download it and install it.

Vs Linux, where network (and most essential) drivers are baked into the kernel, and all other drivers (for peripherals, etc) can be had via a package manager, where you can often find free and open source solutions. Also, video drivers are automatically installed with the OS (provided you are using a distro with a proper graphical installer for ease of use, cough use Endeavour cough), and automatically updated when the system is updated.

[–] root_beer@midwest.social 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I just installed Windows on my daughter’s new [to her] computer last night and this did not happen. Don’t get me wrong, I loathe Windows, but c’mon.

[–] Strykker@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I had the ethernet in my desktop mobo not work when I tried upgrading to win11. Worked fine in 10 but no internet on 11.

I also had a very difficult time getting a Xbox wireless controller adapter working on win 10 without spending about 2 hours searching.

Windows usually works but sometimes it just fucking doesn't. Linux isn't perfect either but I usually don't have issues with my Ethernet ports not working.

[–] root_beer@midwest.social 1 points 1 year ago

I think hiccups are going to be inevitable at times no matter what you’re using, but I don’t expect total disaster to befall you either, no matter what you’re using. I will admit that I was miffed as hell when that TPM bullshit came up when I was installing Win11 last night but a quick download of Rufus and a bootable USB installation cleared that up right quick.

[–] lunaticneko@lemmy.ml 7 points 1 year ago (3 children)

What kind of weird or shitty NIC you're using that needs a specific driver for Windows?

[–] Macros@feddit.de 6 points 1 year ago

Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5 Gen 8 Notebook comes with a MEDIATEK MT7922. Windows 11 does not want to install unless you circumvent the requirement for Internet or supply it with a manually downloaded driver.

Linux? Just works.

[–] WildlyCanadian@lemmy.ca 4 points 1 year ago

TP-Link Archer T6E, one of the most popular on the market

[–] argv_minus_one 2 points 1 year ago

The wireless kind, presumably. Those always need their own firmware and therefore their own driver.

[–] striderstroke@lemm.ee 6 points 1 year ago

I tend to have driver issues more so with Linux than windows in my experience. Both seem to be capable at the very least of automatically installing a lot of the drivers without user intervention.

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

When I first tried Windows XP, I had to figure out how to install storage drivers in order to install the OS.

[–] Scary_le_Poo 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

And back at that time if you installed any flavor of Linux you were lucky if the OS install didn't fuck itself over, also God help you find drivers, assuming that they even existed. At least xp would function.

As of windows 10, windows will always function on pretty much any hardware out of the box. Some obscure Chinese WiFi dongles might have some issues, but main board drivers are always right there.

Linux users have this weird echo chamber where they seem to think that Linux just works. It can but it's a 50/50 chance that it won't and you'll spend hours troubleshooting. Also os updates on Linux have a high probability of borking the entire os.

Windows, for all of it's many many faults, generally does "just work". It might not be perfect, but it will function.

[–] argv_minus_one 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

And back at that time if you installed any flavor of Linux you were lucky if the OS install didn’t fuck itself over

I was using Linux religiously back then, and this is false. As long as there's a driver for all of your hardware, it generally worked fine.

But that “as long as” is doing some heavy lifting. The usual suspects were pretty much the same as now: Broadcom, NeoMagic, and NVIDIA. Some cheap printers and modems were problematic as well, but if you paid for good hardware, it would probably work.

[–] Scary_le_Poo 1 points 1 year ago

And that's the rub. You have to very specifically choose your hardware for Linux. Or at least you had to back then. It's not quite so bad now, but back then it was a real showstopper. Especially broadcom. That caused me no end of issues back in the day.

[–] SkepticElliptic 1 points 1 year ago

If you want to have some fun install Windows 10 on a hard drive. Disk usage will go to 100%. It doesn't do this on SSDs except maybe very rarely. I'm pretty sure this is not a bug, but intentional so that people will buy a new PC. Windows 7 will run flawlessly on the same hardware. Although Linux is starting to demand higher hardware specs than it deserves.

[–] MonkderZweite@feddit.ch 1 points 1 year ago

Nowadays it's more of a fight against the update-provided drivers though.

[–] Omega_Jimes@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

I had a similar situation with my ryzen 1600 motherboard, except it was the sound card. Everytime windows updated it would dump the driver I installed and try another one that was broken. I had to keep my sound drivers on the desktop so I could reinstall them. This occurred even after I reinstalled windows 10 on a different ssd.