Comments on: Web Cameras on Ubuntu: Woe is me http://techticker.net/2008/04/15/web-cameras-on-ubuntu-woe-is-me/ educational technology, eLearning & emerging technology Fri, 29 Aug 2008 22:06:59 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: matt smith http://techticker.net/2008/04/15/web-cameras-on-ubuntu-woe-is-me/#comment-97 matt smith Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:01:13 +0000 http://mbogle.wordpress.com/?p=1553#comment-97 Dealing with hardware in linux is often difficult because of availability of drivers. The best drivers are made when the maker of the hardware provides technical information about their device so that the linux kernel hackers don't have to guess so much. However, most hardware manufacturers don't want their competitors getting hold of that same information. A middle ground is where the hardware vendor creates a driver themselves but there can be issues with this too because there is no really standard linux kernel: Customers could be running any number of customised linux kernels with different features turned on or off depending on their distro or choices made when compiling their own kernel. Having said that, Ubuntu shines as a distro that has devoted a great deal of effort towards making it work on any hardware. Dealing with hardware in linux is often difficult because of availability of drivers. The best drivers are made when the maker of the hardware provides technical information about their device so that the linux kernel hackers don’t have to guess so much. However, most hardware manufacturers don’t want their competitors getting hold of that same information. A middle ground is where the hardware vendor creates a driver themselves but there can be issues with this too because there is no really standard linux kernel: Customers could be running any number of customised linux kernels with different features turned on or off depending on their distro or choices made when compiling their own kernel.

Having said that, Ubuntu shines as a distro that has devoted a great deal of effort towards making it work on any hardware.

]]>