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> I do a windows reinstallation about once every second year, and I routinely get problems. Network drivers are almost always missing. Looking at the device man

by Decade 10y ago

> I do a windows reinstallation about once every second year, and I routinely get problems. Network drivers are almost always missing. Looking at the device manager, about 5-10 different devices fails to auto-install, all part of the motherboards. What are you reinstalling, Windows XP every time? Newer versions of Windows are getting better at finding and installing sane drivers for the hardware. It’s still not perfect, Windows Update doesn’t have all the latest drivers and OEMs ruin everything especially on laptops, but these days I install the latest Windows and everything usually just works.

belorn 10y ago
Windows 7, desktop machine, and windows update don't really work without a functioning network connection. But if you don't believe me, and choose to believe those reporting issues with Linux, just do a google search on windows install and network issues. There is plenty of people reporting the same issue. to cite windows own support page: "If Windows can’t find a new driver for your network adapter, visit the PC manufacturer’s website and download the latest network adapter driver from there. If your PC can't connect to the Internet, you'll need to download a driver on a different PC and save it to a USB flash drive so you can install the driver on your PC"
- Sanddancer 10y ago
  At this point, Windows 7 is 7 years old. Do an apples to apples comparison here, and try getting your same hardware working on a copy of Ubuntu 9.04 or RHEL 5.3. How hard is it?
  - belorn 10y ago
    Why should I only look at the exact date which windows 7 was released, rather than the date when a major release of debian got out, say 2011 with Debian 6.0? No network issue, occasional problems with x-server, problems with sound (as said above). Network works out of the box. On windows, issue with network, issue with graphics (until driver was installed), no problem with sound. A few months ago I bought a gaming laptop on release date. Guess what, network worked without issue. X-server did not start until proprietary drivers were installed. Sound worked. Windows release schedule do not match Debian's release schedule. Each year after a release, the default drivers will get worse, but the general experience can still be obtained by people who experience the install process. The experience I have endured with windows is issue with new motherboards and especially network drivers (and built-in raid cards for the installer... good grief, that was a wasted afternoon trying to get the installer to accept the raid drivers). Second to that, the fall back graphic drivers look crappy and is bad in every way except that its slightly better than a basic command prompt.

by Decade 10y ago

belorn 10y ago

Windows 7, desktop machine, and windows update don't really work without a functioning network connection. But if you don't believe me, and choose to believe those reporting issues with Linux, just do a google search on windows install and network issues. There is plenty of people reporting the same issue. to cite windows own support page: "If Windows can’t find a new driver for your network adapter, visit the PC manufacturer’s website and download the latest network adapter driver from there. If your PC can't connect to the Internet, you'll need to download a driver on a different PC and save it to a USB flash drive so you can install the driver on your PC"

Sanddancer 10y ago
At this point, Windows 7 is 7 years old. Do an apples to apples comparison here, and try getting your same hardware working on a copy of Ubuntu 9.04 or RHEL 5.3. How hard is it?
- belorn 10y ago
  Why should I only look at the exact date which windows 7 was released, rather than the date when a major release of debian got out, say 2011 with Debian 6.0? No network issue, occasional problems with x-server, problems with sound (as said above). Network works out of the box. On windows, issue with network, issue with graphics (until driver was installed), no problem with sound. A few months ago I bought a gaming laptop on release date. Guess what, network worked without issue. X-server did not start until proprietary drivers were installed. Sound worked. Windows release schedule do not match Debian's release schedule. Each year after a release, the default drivers will get worse, but the general experience can still be obtained by people who experience the install process. The experience I have endured with windows is issue with new motherboards and especially network drivers (and built-in raid cards for the installer... good grief, that was a wasted afternoon trying to get the installer to accept the raid drivers). Second to that, the fall back graphic drivers look crappy and is bad in every way except that its slightly better than a basic command prompt.