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I'm confused by Ubuntu being called out as specifically having "great [..] hardware compatibility". I've been using SUSE for 10 years now and I've never had a s

I'm confused by Ubuntu being called out as specifically having "great [..] hardware compatibility". I've been using SUSE for 10 years now and I've never had a single peripheral which didn't work out the box. This is down to the great work of the Linux and driver developers rather than Ubuntu itself.

zorlem 14y ago
The great hardware support is indeed provided by the kernel, but out of the box it's nowhere near pain-free. In particular when you have to setup your wireless or video drivers. Sadly, these two still often require binary drivers and picking from several options. One specific example (mentioned in the OP as well) is with the wireless drivers - there usually are at least two options that provide some support and usually one of them is better. I've had to configure some Broadcom WiFi support and there are three different solutions - ndiswrapper, binary blob provided by Broadcom and the driver in the kernel. Picking one of the three is a time consuming and complicated process on other distros and nowhere near easy and accessible to new users. Ubuntu on the other hand, with their driver manager, picked the correct driver, downloaded the required bits and pieces, and configured them all without needing to do anything else. The same can be said for eg. NVidia support. This in my book is a clear win for Ubuntu.
bxbb 14y ago
The article probably written for non-Linux user who looking forward to switch side. Hardware compatibility, [almost]malware-free, software center (heck, just say repo), backup and migration, those shinny things mostly become concern of migrating user. I remember few of my friend going crazy and try Arch after they see my setup (mouseless workflow, mpd, tmux), and end up installing Ubuntu because the learning curve was too steep. That being said, despite poor decisions that being taken lately, I still consider Canonical and Ubuntu to be fairly successful embracing new user.
rlpb 14y ago
Ubuntu's kernel is often ahead of upstream in terms of drivers. Being open source, all distributions get the benefit.

zorlem 14y ago

The great hardware support is indeed provided by the kernel, but out of the box it's nowhere near pain-free. In particular when you have to setup your wireless or video drivers. Sadly, these two still often require binary drivers and picking from several options. One specific example (mentioned in the OP as well) is with the wireless drivers - there usually are at least two options that provide some support and usually one of them is better. I've had to configure some Broadcom WiFi support and there are three different solutions - ndiswrapper, binary blob provided by Broadcom and the driver in the kernel. Picking one of the three is a time consuming and complicated process on other distros and nowhere near easy and accessible to new users. Ubuntu on the other hand, with their driver manager, picked the correct driver, downloaded the required bits and pieces, and configured them all without needing to do anything else. The same can be said for eg. NVidia support. This in my book is a clear win for Ubuntu.

bxbb 14y ago

The article probably written for non-Linux user who looking forward to switch side. Hardware compatibility, [almost]malware-free, software center (heck, just say repo), backup and migration, those shinny things mostly become concern of migrating user. I remember few of my friend going crazy and try Arch after they see my setup (mouseless workflow, mpd, tmux), and end up installing Ubuntu because the learning curve was too steep. That being said, despite poor decisions that being taken lately, I still consider Canonical and Ubuntu to be fairly successful embracing new user.

rlpb 14y ago

Ubuntu's kernel is often ahead of upstream in terms of drivers. Being open source, all distributions get the benefit.