Hardware For Linux

[Bondi007]

Is there any hardware that is supported for linux that comes with a cd so i can install it normally like windows like wireless cards, printers ect




Cheers
Bondi007

[mchuskie]

Re: Hardware For Linux

No1, because - and this is important - Linux works differently to Windows.

With Linux, with a few exceptions2 hardware drivers are packaged as part of the kernel (in fact, as kernel modules). This means that, theoretically at least, your hardware is either supported in Linux and you can plug-and-play, or it's unsupported and there is no way of getting it working.

This approach has pros and cons... pro that it means drivers are guaranteed not to make the rest of the system fall over, as they are all part of the same source code tree; cons because it does take a while for drivers for new hardware to make it down the chain into distros like Kubuntu3. This is mostly because almost all drivers for Linux are developed by volunteers with little or no support from the hardware manufacturer.

There are resources online to see if a given piece of hardware is supported under Linux: the main one is called 'Google'... But be careful of dates - back in 2004, my TV card had no support at all, whereas now it has full support. Check the date of any "Help, my card doesn't work" posts before you take them to heart.

Printers: www.linuxprinting.org
Wireless cards: anything with an Atheros chipset should work nicely, your mileage may vary with other chipsets

[1] Not significantly, anyway
[2] nVidia graphics drivers are the obvious example that springs to mind
[3] This is not the fault of Kubuntu, or any given distro's, developers - it's just the way things are. Some distros have a different setup for their kernel, so what works in one distro may not work with the same kernel version in another