Comment by anc84 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by anc84 | Hacker News Reader

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Device drivers are one of the things I LOVE Linux. Instead of having to install 500 Megabytes of software from a CD or downloading 20 different vendor update tools, it usually is just plug and play. Instantly.

Of course configuration is needed. I doubt that the scanner issue is a driver thing. Are you sure the software is configured to do a full resolution, RGB scan?

Optimus GPU are hell on Windows as well. Never buy laptops with that nonsense. Generally, you cannot expect any random consumer poop laptop to work well. Linux does not work perfectly everywhere but it sure is more compatible than Mac OS when it comes to using your own hardware. Buy a proper business model laptop and it will work 99%. Just like Windows would.

I have mixed experience with drivers on Linux. Recently, my onboard sound card died and I dug out a PCI one. It's about 10 years old but on Linux it just worked. No such luck on Windows 10. Latest official driers were available for Win8 and there was no way to get it to work on anything newer.

But then, anytime I do anything involving printers, it is a huge pain.

Eh, as far as consumer-priced printers I have 0 issues with any of Brother's printers. I have a basic MFC-J4420DW inkjet at home connected to Windows, macOS and Linux devices - they even provide .rpm and .deb files with their CUPS and Sane drivers.

macOS is definitely the best experience when it comes to printing though, the moment I pop the IP for my printer in and hit add the driver package gets automatically downloaded from Apple and installed.

> But then, anytime I do anything involving printers, it is a huge pain.

I've not had great luck trying to get random printers to work with Linux, but it's also not something I've attempted in a long time.

For those times when you can choose the printer, the OpenPrinting compatibility database ( https://www.openprinting.org/printers ) is very good. And if you don't want to bother with that, any PostScript printer will work fine.

If you are already stuck with a printer with poor compatibility, you might be in for a bad time, though. :-(

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