Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Linux Supports More Devices Than Any Other OS

Posted by kdawson on from the in-the-tree dept.

Linux Blog recommends an interview up on the O'Reilly site with Greg Kroah-Hartman, long-time Linux kernel hacker and the current Linux kernel maintainer for the USB driver core. He updates the free Linux driver program announced almost two years ago, which has really caught traction now with more than 300 developers volunteering. The interviewer begins by asking about Kroah-Hartman's claim that the Linux kernel now supports more devices than any other operating system ever has. "[One factor is] the ease of writing drivers; Linux drivers are at normally one-third smaller than Windows drivers or other operating system drivers. We have all the examples there, so it's trivial to write a new one if you have new hardware, usually because you can copy the code and go. We maintain them... forever, so the old ones don't disappear and we run on every single processor out there. I mean Linux is 80% of the world's top 500 super computers right now and we're also the number one embedded operating system today. We've got both sides of the market because it's — yeah it's pretty amazing. I don't know why, but we're doing something right."

10 of 272 comments (clear)

  1. God, you're good! by XB-70 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Could you guys write a driver for my limo?

    --
    *** Don't be dull.***
    1. Re:God, you're good! by von_rick · · Score: 5, Funny
      run

      # lslimo > output.txt

      and post the output.txt file.

      --

      Face your daemons!

    2. Re:God, you're good! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      output.txt:

      00:00.0 12v Battery
      00:01.0 Chassis
      00:1a.0 Engine
      00:1a.1 Gear box
      00:1a.2 Cam belt
      00:1a.7 Drive shaft
      00:1b.0 Stereo
      00:1c.0 Steering wheel
      00:1c.4 Steering column
      00:1c.5 Horn
      00:1d.0 Driver seat
      00:1d.1 Front passenger seat
      00:1d.2 Hot tub
      00:1d.7 Back passenger seats
      00:1e.0 Wheels
      00:1f.0 Doors

    3. Re:God, you're good! by hdparm · · Score: 5, Funny

      You will obviously have to use manufacturers non-free driver, as they haven't released the spec for a Hot tub device. The latest patch I have in git fills the tub (although there are some overflowing issues with the latest, compact tubs) but doesn't heat the water yet.

  2. Proper Linking Please by camperdave · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Can we get proper links in the summaries. I expected the link in "He updates the free Linux driver program announced almost two years ago" (which I've bolded because underlining is filtered out) to point to the program's website rather than back to Slashdot.

    If you want to link to Slashdot, then do it this way: "He updates the free Linux driver program announced almost two years ago"

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  3. Re:I don't know why, but we're doing something rig by freddy_dreddy · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The equipment you're working with probably comes from companies like Barco, Agfa, Siemens, ... am I right ? The ones I saw in that field all ran proprietary software directly on the hardware or on a very thin proprietary OS. Which is why this equipment is so $-intensive (that, and medical research generally pays whatever bill you present them with).

    --
    "Violence is the last refuge of the competent, and, generally, the first refuge of the incompetent" - Thing_1
  4. Re:No surprise here... by DaveWick79 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This may be true, but which OS is handicapped by it?

    The only advantage to Linux is the more frequent release schedule which allows it to stay current with drivers.

    Every windows release has come with a fairly current and comprehensive driver list. Every device you can buy has a windows driver included with it.

    Also of note is the influx of what you might call "Basic functionality" drivers for devices such as scanners and multifunction printers - often full feature drivers are not available for these devices even though they technically work on Linux.

  5. Just a dumb user . . . by quixote9 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    but I moved to Ubuntu anyway a few years back when M$ started turning off purchased, but unregistered, copies of Office. So I had my share of issues back in the day.

    A while ago I was helping somebody get some software running and printing under Windows, and . . . gawd! . . . they had to install a driver. It's been a couple of years since I had to do anything so primitive. Everything just works.

    That's when it finally dawned on me that the times they are a'changin.

  6. Re:No surprise here... by sslo · · Score: 5, Interesting
    "Its no surprise that Linux supports more devices."

    I say! Hallo over there.

    Could some of you fine upstanding penguins please find it in your pint-size reptilian hearts to migrate over here to Van Daemon's Land this season, and help our poor bewildered little FreeBSD creature rebuild his USB nest?

    This is no joke, penguin people. Seriously, I need to keep a Kubuntu machine handy just to read the SD cards from my Canon. That simple task crashes FreeBSD. Regularly, reliably crashes it.

    I will probably be hunted down and speared with a tiny fork for this. But I think we need some penguin DNA over here, because no one has been able to properly deal with this for the past six years or more.

    There's a recent article at Linux.com about the ancient FreeBSD kernel panic involved in this, that has now even tripped up the PC-BSD project. http://www.linux.com/feature/149224

    And now, I must scurry hurry to hide from the fork prongs!

    Sincerely - a frightened daemon captive

  7. Re:No surprise here... by serviscope_minor · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Odd. My install of Win 2k3 works in 2D with my old Voodoo 3 PCI.

    Only 2D drivers available? Until it can provide 3D out of the box, this will not be the year od the Windows desktop.

    --
    SJW n. One who posts facts.