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Hardware supported in Linux

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Refalm:

quote:pandronic: Is that hard for a company to do Linux drivers after they do Windows drivers - I just don't get it. Is the Linux market so unatractive?
--- End quote ---


Depends. The main reason for nVidia to make Linux drivers is because of all the professionals that render 3D animation with something like Maya.

When a company decides not to make a Linux driver, the driver has to be made by the OSS community. It's mostly succesful (not always... when nVidia did only Windows/Mac OS drivers, there was no chance of playing modern games on Linux, unless you had an 3dfx card).

pandronic:
What about other manufacturers? And I'm not only talking about gfx cards?

Are there any other?

KernelPanic:
There are probably a fair few more, but what does it matter? OSS drivers fill the gaps usually.

Are you interested in some particular hardware?

Refalm:
D-Link and Realtek also make Linux drivers for their NIC's.

WMD:
Hardware support for Linux is slowly getting better, but you still have to buy hardware for Linux most of the time (as opposed to buying whatever hardware you want).

A good place to look is the LinuxQuestions.org Hardware Compatibility List.  It lists hard by type and company, then users post how they got a piece of hardware working.

EDIT:
 
quote:Is that hard for a company to do Linux drivers after they do Windows drivers - I just don't get it. Is the Linux market so unatractive?
--- End quote ---

Actually, writing Linux drivers can be easier than writing Windows ones, because the source code is available.  However, they see a market share "issue" right away without even looking into it.
I think that writing Linux drivers would be good for a company - the community would be happy and the sales for that hardware would go up.

[ July 16, 2004: Message edited by: WMD ]

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