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Fun story. Once I helped a friend with his Arduino code. I program the Arduino on his Windows PC and remove it. There were still issues, so we had to program it

Fun story. Once I helped a friend with his Arduino code. I program the Arduino on his Windows PC and remove it. There were still issues, so we had to program it once more. “Great” he says, “now we have to reboot”. “Why” I ask and he replies “these are windows man, they aren't like your linux machine”. In disbelief I connect the Arduino to the USB port but indeed, Windows fail to detect it. Trying to be smart, I pull out his usb mouse receiver and swap USB ports with the Arduino. The PC recognizes it and I feel triumphant. “Now you've done it” he says, “we have to reboot if we ever expect Windows to recognize this mouse again, you don't just move things between USB ports in Windows”. He still uses Windows to this day, I guess we value different things as important in our OSes. :)

pmelendez 11y ago
Well that's an odd problem and not usual at all (at least not for me and my 4 Windows machines). However, my main computer in my last job was an Ubuntu machine (A Dell with hardware linux-friendly components) and the amount of oddities weren't even funny. (Like having to uninstall your video driver before update to avoid losing a morning making boot again) I guess we value different things as important in our OSes.
- andmarios 11y ago
  Well, the problem you describe is an odd problem and not usual at all (at least not for me and my 4 Linux machines). ;)
  - pmelendez 11y ago
    It is not that unusual: http://askubuntu.com/questions/477370/ubuntu-14-04-boots-to-black-screen-after-upgrade-from-13-10-no-display-proble http://askubuntu.com/questions/477370/ubuntu-14-04-boots-to-... http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2080918 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2080918 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/399821 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/399821 We have that problem at the office very frequently, somebody got it first then lose a morning figuring out a workaround and then that person tells everyone else. My point is... this weird things with drivers happens in every OS (OSX included). After been working with Windows, OSX and Linux at work in different stages of my life, my conclusion is that at least for me, any choice of an OS is about personal taste.
    - andmarios 11y ago
      Indeed, there are issues with every OS. I think though, Linux get attacked most often and usually is because people do not know it as they know Windows.
      - pmelendez 11y ago
        Maybe, but at least in my case I have been using Linux exclusively as a desktop at several jobs for many years and still I found it to be a buggy experience. I'm still waiting for the year of linux's desktop. That's not the case with the server though. I really love the linux's server experience more than windows and osx. There is one thing that Linux really got it right and it is the terminal experience.
        andmarios 11y ago
        The Linux desktop has been here for quite a while. If you expect to see high usage numbers, it's not going to happen. The problem is the entry barrier to a completely different OS. Most people when sit next to me, admire and are jealous of the things a Linux desktop can do (as does my friend from the story), but they can't invest the time needed to learn a new OS; there are literally hundreds of big and small things they have to forget and re-learn anew. This is the funny part too, because for me the same happens with Windows. I can't invest the time to learn the new Windows (I left at Windows XP). Once I spent half an hour on Windows 8 trying to find out how I shutdown the machine! I even opened windows help! Another time I spent as much time on Windows 7 trying to make file extensions visible.
      - drzaiusapelord 11y ago
        Oh come on. I use the Linux desktop a lot, typically Xubuntu but lately ElementaryOS and its full of quirks and oddities that cement why OSX and Windows are the leaders and why the "Year of the Linux Desktop" never happened. Hell, Elementary and Mint seem like the first really usable desktops I'd even come close to recommending (No, grandma has no idea how to even begin using the GUI Ubuntu ships with now). It took us how many years to get here? 20+? While the whole time Apple and MS had easy to use GUI's and stable OS's that just worked. Desktop experiences are a lot harder to perfect than we give to credit to. I wish more people understood that.
- jebblue 11y ago
  I've only seen better support for hardware across all machines I've ever run Linux on compared to Windows. That is experience across over 2 dozen machines in the past 10 years.
- keithpeter 11y ago
  Ubuntu: "(Like having to uninstall your video driver before update to avoid losing a morning making boot again)" Which driver was that? If it was the nvidia proprietary driver then there are ways of installing the driver so it rebuilds the kernel module to avoid all that.
TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago
This is almost certainly not a problem with Windows, but with the device drivers the Arduino uses.
- andmarios 11y ago
  The real problem for me wasn't with the arduino that is an edge case for most users but with the usb mouse. The arduino though only uses a USB to Serial converter, nothing fancy.

pmelendez 11y ago

Well that's an odd problem and not usual at all (at least not for me and my 4 Windows machines). However, my main computer in my last job was an Ubuntu machine (A Dell with hardware linux-friendly components) and the amount of oddities weren't even funny. (Like having to uninstall your video driver before update to avoid losing a morning making boot again) I guess we value different things as important in our OSes.

andmarios 11y ago
Well, the problem you describe is an odd problem and not usual at all (at least not for me and my 4 Linux machines). ;)
- pmelendez 11y ago
  It is not that unusual: http://askubuntu.com/questions/477370/ubuntu-14-04-boots-to-black-screen-after-upgrade-from-13-10-no-display-proble http://askubuntu.com/questions/477370/ubuntu-14-04-boots-to-... http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2080918 http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2080918 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/399821 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/399821 We have that problem at the office very frequently, somebody got it first then lose a morning figuring out a workaround and then that person tells everyone else. My point is... this weird things with drivers happens in every OS (OSX included). After been working with Windows, OSX and Linux at work in different stages of my life, my conclusion is that at least for me, any choice of an OS is about personal taste.
  - andmarios 11y ago
    Indeed, there are issues with every OS. I think though, Linux get attacked most often and usually is because people do not know it as they know Windows.
    - pmelendez 11y ago
      Maybe, but at least in my case I have been using Linux exclusively as a desktop at several jobs for many years and still I found it to be a buggy experience. I'm still waiting for the year of linux's desktop. That's not the case with the server though. I really love the linux's server experience more than windows and osx. There is one thing that Linux really got it right and it is the terminal experience.
      - andmarios 11y ago
        The Linux desktop has been here for quite a while. If you expect to see high usage numbers, it's not going to happen. The problem is the entry barrier to a completely different OS. Most people when sit next to me, admire and are jealous of the things a Linux desktop can do (as does my friend from the story), but they can't invest the time needed to learn a new OS; there are literally hundreds of big and small things they have to forget and re-learn anew. This is the funny part too, because for me the same happens with Windows. I can't invest the time to learn the new Windows (I left at Windows XP). Once I spent half an hour on Windows 8 trying to find out how I shutdown the machine! I even opened windows help! Another time I spent as much time on Windows 7 trying to make file extensions visible.
    - drzaiusapelord 11y ago
      Oh come on. I use the Linux desktop a lot, typically Xubuntu but lately ElementaryOS and its full of quirks and oddities that cement why OSX and Windows are the leaders and why the "Year of the Linux Desktop" never happened. Hell, Elementary and Mint seem like the first really usable desktops I'd even come close to recommending (No, grandma has no idea how to even begin using the GUI Ubuntu ships with now). It took us how many years to get here? 20+? While the whole time Apple and MS had easy to use GUI's and stable OS's that just worked. Desktop experiences are a lot harder to perfect than we give to credit to. I wish more people understood that.
jebblue 11y ago
I've only seen better support for hardware across all machines I've ever run Linux on compared to Windows. That is experience across over 2 dozen machines in the past 10 years.
keithpeter 11y ago
Ubuntu: "(Like having to uninstall your video driver before update to avoid losing a morning making boot again)" Which driver was that? If it was the nvidia proprietary driver then there are ways of installing the driver so it rebuilds the kernel module to avoid all that.

TazeTSchnitzel 11y ago

This is almost certainly not a problem with Windows, but with the device drivers the Arduino uses.

andmarios 11y ago
The real problem for me wasn't with the arduino that is an edge case for most users but with the usb mouse. The arduino though only uses a USB to Serial converter, nothing fancy.