Device support in Windows vs. Linux Jul 30, 2010, 14 :04 UTC (0 Talkback[s]) (4896 reads) (Other stories by apexwm)
"One of the highly debated subjects with Windows and Linux is with device support. The two have different methods of how drivers are created and implemented into the operating system. With Windows, Microsoft writes generic drivers to help ensure that users can get up and running, then 3rd party supplied drivers can be installed to optimize performance. With Linux, drivers are all included with the Linux kernel, and devices are detected and the appropriate drivers are then activated on the fly. There are no 3rd parties to contact for drivers (unless a proprietary driver is needed, in which case it has to be manually installed, similar to Windows; this is rare but sometimes necessary).
"I've found that driver support in Linux is excellent. But you may have seen somebody exclaim that their PC just isn't supported with Linux, and rumors have circulated around for years that Linux just doesn't have good hardware support."
