07.20.07
Fear Not
Since I converted my own last remaining Windows machine to Linux, I have been continually amazed by the capabilities that I’m finding. There was a time when one of the big issues you had to deal with when you changed operating systems was compatibility with peripherals–cameras, graphics tablets, printers, sound equipment, scanners, even monitors–but for the most part, this is no longer true.
First of all, any decent product has drivers available for Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. There is a chance that Linux emulation mode will allow BSD operating systems (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, DragonflyBSD) to utilize the Linux drivers or that the Mac OS X drivers will be usable. So most operating systems that people might want to actually use will be able to use the hardware.
Some companies don’t make drivers for Linux (and other FLOSS operating systems) and don’t release enough information about their products to allow someone else to write fully-functional drivers. Others may work if you are willing to do a lot of extra configuration. Still, most decent products by most companies work and work well.
Case in point: when I want a new laser mouse, I go to the nearest discount store and buy whatever is on sale. A co-worker of mine is still trying to get his new Vista computer to accept one of the mice he has bought. Someone else I talked to at work today is trying unsuccessfully to get his printer to work with his new Vista machine.
I just walked into a store and saw a digital camera for $99. Since I had not previously owned a digital camera, I went ahead and bought this Sanyo VPC-S600 6.0 megapixel camera. I snapped a few photos just to try it out.
I connected the camera to the laptop and *poof* I had a file manager window open with the images visible inside.
Typically, a Windows user runs the included installation CD, which installs drivers to enable the camera to work and also installs some really crappy image-editing software along with an “update manager” and sets it all to run in the background at startup, along with scattering icons (including the camera maker’s favored online image processing and image-sharing sites) all over the desktop. It turns out that most cameras do not need the included software–they’ll work in Windows with “My Computer” / Windows Explorer–but a few (especially a certain HP model I’ve had to deal with) do not. However, with the modern distributions of Linux, I have never seen a camera that needed any special software to work. They have all worked right away.
My point: Don’t be afraid to make the move to Ubuntu Linux, Linux Mint, OpenOffice.org, Fedora Linux, and other FLOSS products. They are every bit the equal and in some ways superior to their proprietary competition. If you’re hearing that open source software is inferior to proprietary commercial products, someone is lying to you. One of the best things you can do for your business is to require the use of free software and open source software products, along with open standard file formats and open standard network protocols whenever and wherever they suit your needs.
Does your operating system vendor, for example, treat you as a thief, running license verification software that calls home to the vendor every time you turn on your computer? Maybe you are using the wrong operating system. Does your office application vendor insert hidden tracking codes in the documents you work on? Maybe you are using the wrong office suite. Does your software vendor keep changing its file formats and network protocols so you have to keep buying new versions of the software? Maybe you need to look at software that does not come from that vendor.
Most important, fear not, your hardware mostly just works these days with a modern version of GNU+Linux.
