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I've had a much worse time with hardware on windows than Linux these last couple of years. My work laptop runs Windows and will get stuck in a BSPD bootloop if

I've had a much worse time with hardware on windows than Linux these last couple of years. My work laptop runs Windows and will get stuck in a BSPD bootloop if I turn it on with external monitors connected. My USB keyboard and mouse disconnect every few minutes. Windows may as well not even have Bluetooth for as well as it works. Some devices always show as connected, despite not being present. I have to un-pair my headphones every time I want to connect. Sometimes I have to reboot my computer to get them to work. Windows also doesn't even support Bluetooth audio sink. On Linux, I can play audio from my phone to my computer and pipe it back into my Bluetooth headphones. Windows 7 supported this, but 10 does not. I've even used some weird old PCI cards that only have XP drivers, but work fine with Linux. The only hardware I've had trouble with in the last 5 years is Nvidia cards. And that's a deliberate decision made by Nvidia to not support Linux. AMD cards work perfectly. I haven't seen problems with audio or WiFi on Linux in over ten years.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago
> some weird old PCI cards that only have XP drivers, but work fine with Linux. I will say, supporting old hardware is probably Linux's strong suit, because their model of upstream first means that maintenance tends to get carried a lot further than proprietary drivers ever would.
xoac 3y ago
Recent nvidia (3-4 series) cards work pretty well now.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
geodel 3y ago
>I've had a much worse time with hardware on windows than Linux these last couple of years. I don't doubt that as I have had same experience. But somehow Windows has to get worse from non-technical users' perspective to be real trouble for Microsoft. So far my spouse still find think Windows is the normal thing despite using rather trouble-free, fast Mac at home for many years along with horribly slow and problematic Windows laptop provided by employer. So even with their own first-hand experience with Windows problems they consider Linux or Mac difficult/exotic thing.
- calamari4065 3y ago
  I genuinely, truly do not understand how Microsoft, let alone any user, can accept the current state of Windows' Bluetooth stack. It's completely broken, core features are simply not implemented. Microsoft themselves provide a better Bluetooth UI in one of their WPF demo repos than the one shipped with Windows. Maybe I'm biased because my job involves building Bluetooth hardware and software for Windows, but even just trying to use normal devices like headphones or controllers is absolute anguish. Bluetooth on Linux isn't perfect: I frequently have to unpair and repair my headphones, but at least it's feature complete. Anything that Bluetooth can do is exposed. Linux even comes with some really advanced CLI utilities to manage Bluetooth devices. On windows you're lucky to find a WinRT function for what you want, and it probably doesn't even work. Windows 7 had a complete Bluetooth implementation, but Microsoft decided to rewrite everything from scratch. I guess the intern they delegated it to had to go back to their job at Starbucks before they finished.
TheCoelacanth 3y ago
Linux blows away Windows hardware support on everything except for graphics cards. I set up dual boot on a newish Dell laptop recently and Windows couldn't even access the SSD or the wifi card without installing extra drivers. I haven't had problems that bad on Linux since about 2006.
- calamari4065 3y ago
  Even dual booting is less of an option these days. If you aren't careful, windows will clobber your boot records and force itself to be the default and only boot option. I've even heard of Windows erasing grub during normal updates. I just erased windows from my personal machines. I've been exclusively on Linux for 5 years or more
jerf 3y ago
"I've had a much worse time with hardware on windows than Linux these last couple of years." And I want to emphasize and underline my point here that if Microsoft does just let Windows languish, we are going to gradually see this more and more every year. There won't be a big bang wakeup call. There will always be people who can say "But I haven't had a problem". What you won't be able to easily tell on the forums is that the ratios will slowly-but-surely shift, but again, with no big-bang wakeup. I just bought a brand-new fully-AMD-based laptop for the family, stuck the latest Ubuntu on it, and almost everything works. The only thing that I've found that doesn't is that if I play a game and push it out the HDMI port, we get audio dropouts. It isn't everything on the HDMI port, we watched a lengthy YouTube video with no dropouts. But wifi, bluetooth, all the keyboard controls, battery, everything else I've seen is working.
- calamari4065 3y ago
  I honestly think we've already passed the peak and are already in the slow decline. Microsoft has already pushed too hard and alienated too many users. Now they'll slowly keep losing market share while desperately squeezing the remaining market for all its worth until there's nothing left. Their momentum will carry them for an unfortunately long time.

yjftsjthsd-h 3y ago

> some weird old PCI cards that only have XP drivers, but work fine with Linux. I will say, supporting old hardware is probably Linux's strong suit, because their model of upstream first means that maintenance tends to get carried a lot further than proprietary drivers ever would.

xoac 3y ago

Recent nvidia (3-4 series) cards work pretty well now.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

geodel 3y ago

>I've had a much worse time with hardware on windows than Linux these last couple of years. I don't doubt that as I have had same experience. But somehow Windows has to get worse from non-technical users' perspective to be real trouble for Microsoft. So far my spouse still find think Windows is the normal thing despite using rather trouble-free, fast Mac at home for many years along with horribly slow and problematic Windows laptop provided by employer. So even with their own first-hand experience with Windows problems they consider Linux or Mac difficult/exotic thing.

calamari4065 3y ago
I genuinely, truly do not understand how Microsoft, let alone any user, can accept the current state of Windows' Bluetooth stack. It's completely broken, core features are simply not implemented. Microsoft themselves provide a better Bluetooth UI in one of their WPF demo repos than the one shipped with Windows. Maybe I'm biased because my job involves building Bluetooth hardware and software for Windows, but even just trying to use normal devices like headphones or controllers is absolute anguish. Bluetooth on Linux isn't perfect: I frequently have to unpair and repair my headphones, but at least it's feature complete. Anything that Bluetooth can do is exposed. Linux even comes with some really advanced CLI utilities to manage Bluetooth devices. On windows you're lucky to find a WinRT function for what you want, and it probably doesn't even work. Windows 7 had a complete Bluetooth implementation, but Microsoft decided to rewrite everything from scratch. I guess the intern they delegated it to had to go back to their job at Starbucks before they finished.

TheCoelacanth 3y ago

Linux blows away Windows hardware support on everything except for graphics cards. I set up dual boot on a newish Dell laptop recently and Windows couldn't even access the SSD or the wifi card without installing extra drivers. I haven't had problems that bad on Linux since about 2006.

calamari4065 3y ago
Even dual booting is less of an option these days. If you aren't careful, windows will clobber your boot records and force itself to be the default and only boot option. I've even heard of Windows erasing grub during normal updates. I just erased windows from my personal machines. I've been exclusively on Linux for 5 years or more

jerf 3y ago

"I've had a much worse time with hardware on windows than Linux these last couple of years." And I want to emphasize and underline my point here that if Microsoft does just let Windows languish, we are going to gradually see this more and more every year. There won't be a big bang wakeup call. There will always be people who can say "But I haven't had a problem". What you won't be able to easily tell on the forums is that the ratios will slowly-but-surely shift, but again, with no big-bang wakeup. I just bought a brand-new fully-AMD-based laptop for the family, stuck the latest Ubuntu on it, and almost everything works. The only thing that I've found that doesn't is that if I play a game and push it out the HDMI port, we get audio dropouts. It isn't everything on the HDMI port, we watched a lengthy YouTube video with no dropouts. But wifi, bluetooth, all the keyboard controls, battery, everything else I've seen is working.

calamari4065 3y ago
I honestly think we've already passed the peak and are already in the slow decline. Microsoft has already pushed too hard and alienated too many users. Now they'll slowly keep losing market share while desperately squeezing the remaining market for all its worth until there's nothing left. Their momentum will carry them for an unfortunately long time.