Quote:
Originally Posted by
kkeevv
I don't know what the best alternative to MS is.
Shopping for the most Windows-like Linux will be a disappointment, because the whole point is they're
not Windows. They're fundamentally different, in interface and internals.
If you want Windows -- use Windows.
Quote:
What is "junk consumer hardware"?
$10 USB things like your TL-wn725n. The very cheapest consumer PCs and video cards. And such. They are rushed to production with whatever parts were handy. Revisions A, B, and C are liable to be totally different products with the same label. Sometimes they even share the same USB ID despite needing completely different drivers.
Linux does not support products as much as it supports chipsets. So adding support for these sometimes just means finding out what chipset it uses, and adding its USB ID to the appropriate driver so its recognized. But there's often minor, undocumented differences in cheap products which which make them unreliable with the generic driver. These undocumented differences are covered by the manufacturer's Windows driver, any other system has to discover them by detective work and trial-and-error.
This sometimes causes a peculiar form of bit-rot where, 10 years after the fact, Linux becomes the
only operating system which can still use a certain product. Our garbage Belkin wifi cards are one such product, between revisions D, E, and F Belkin lost their own driver somehow.