An Open Letter To The Linux Enthusiasts. 4178

Except that some people have found that Linux by default supports their hardware where Windows did not. Of course the manufacturer might well have a driver to support that particular item, but you stillhave to load that driver, etc.

Ie, the Linux distros often have better support for the hardware, and has a lot more software than Windows has. For Windows you can certainly get driver support from the manufacturer more than you can get support from the manufacturer with Linux.

And for Windows you may be able to buy more software than you can for Linux. But, going to the store, buying them, installing them, etc all take time as well as does going to manufacturer's web sites, finding the drivers, installing them etc. It will be a tossup. If you use relatively common hardware, and software, Linux will in general set it up and have software equivalents, and is much cheaper. If you have unusual hardware or software (including very new hardware) then you will probably get better support in Windows for precisely the reasons you state.

One area where more work is needed in Linux is sound support. Alsa is getting there, but many of the Linux apps do not use alsa, they use oss, and the migration is still ongoing.