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Might be a dumb question, but why are so many drivers in the kernel? I get that things like a mass storage device probably needs to be in the kernel but a print
by criddell 1y ago
Might be a dumb question, but why are so many drivers in the kernel? I get that things like a mass storage device probably needs to be in the kernel but a printer or mouse driver seems like it should work from the user space.
- hamandcheese 1y agoI was wondering the opposite... why doesn't Windows have most drivers built in like the Linux kernel?
- criddell 1y agoIf something doesn’t need kernel access, is it good for it to have kernel access?
- frollogaston 1y agoI've always assumed that it actually does, and in both cases people are installing drivers from outside for less common peripherals. Maybe I'm wrong.
- eddythompson80 1y agoTo a large degree Windows offers a lot of generic drivers for everything from wifi to trackpads to bluetooth devices. Hardware vendors can still offer advanced drivers and tools to tweak special things about a particular trackpad or a wifi device. But also because NT interface is mostly stable unlike linux. last really major version was 20 years ago and there Microsoft doesn't need to maintain 3rd party drivers in-tree. Also, the licensing and distribution mechanism and vehicles make certain things too complex. Also plenty of people don't like these linux kernel images and build stripped down ones.