What Linux needs 13538

Can you give some examples of this? Ubuntu's a frickin' breeze.

Hasn't been for me, though there is problematic hardware out there, certainly. The last video problem I had with Linux, I also had with Windows. (Putting a GF2 video card in a 6BTM motherboard requires some, well, nonstandard techniques.)

Nah, compatibility at that level just marginalizes an OS. Look at OS-2, which had near-perfect app compatibility with Windows. Developers had no motivation to develop for OS-2 (thought the fact that IBM charged a lot for the SDKs didn't help), so...

I'm not saying there isn't a place for it, but the real solution, thankfully being implemented, is to have hardware interface standards. A shining example is USB and Firewire, where even the registers for talking to the hardware are standardized (e.g. OHCI, UHCI) and there are standards for how to talk to various clbuttes of hardware (e.g. mbutt storage, still image devices, human interface devices, etc.). Then it just works, as the vast majority of hardware does today.

There are really only two clbuttes of hardware that have problems in Linux today - wireless cards and 3d video cards. Each has problems for different reasons.

The reasons for wireless cards having trouble are legal. FCC regulations put maximum limits on how strong the signals can be, and most cards enforce those limits in software. The manufacturers are worried that malicious types could reprogram the cards to violate the specs. Solve the legal problem, or update the hardware a bit, and the technical problem goes away.

The reasons for 3D cards having trouble are market-based. The graphics chipset business is viciously compebreastive and margins are quite thin. The companies want to keep secrets from each other as much as possible, both hardware and software. In a business where a 5% performance gap is a market-buster, software driver tricks are extremely important and are held as close to the vest as possible.

Fortunately, both problems are solvable, though obviously far from optimally. Binary interfaces already exist, and are used successfully in millions of Linux installations.

Fortunately, libraries can be linked statically and, well, problem solved. It's not been used terribly often (last time I recall ever seeing it was, I think Netscape in the mid-90's statically linking in the Motif libraries) but if it's a real problem the solution's already done.

However, the package management systems on Linux these days are *very* good. Synaptic on Ubuntu has been *quite* pleasant for me. I'm not sure this 'problem' will be perceived as one for much longer.

-- Sincerely,

Ray Ingles (313) 227-2317

"You actually do more to support Al Qaeda by driving when you go out to pick up your drugs! Hell, all of us can help by driving less but, unfortunately, not everyone has a smack habit to give up. (And among those who do, is 'George Bush really wants you to!' going to be the thing that makes a junkie quit?) ... Heroin is the only drug that really benefits persons." - Bill Maher, "When You Ride Alone You Ride With bin Laden"