The Problem with Proprietary Drivers and Linux
A large percentage of the population is concerned only with one thing when they make use of their computers: they want their experience to be both time and cost-efficient. A little problem with using proprietary drivers with open platforms like Linux, however, could prevent users from enjoying that.
Why It Doesn’t Always Work
In an ideal world, there would always be open-sourced video drivers – and open drivers for other devices, too, for that matter – that’s quick and effective to use with open-sourced operating systems.
But in reality, open source platforms and proprietary ones don’t always work together well. Say you want your 3D desktop to work for some reason. The easiest solution to this would be to enable default video drivers with your open source OS – e.g. Linux – rather than go to the trouble of looking for a compatible proprietary video driver.
Let’s try another example. What if you have your entire library music files – something you spent a huge amount of money and time building – locked in a program that makes use of a proprietary driver? Then you have an unexpected need to switch to another OS, one that doesn’t support that particular driver, you’d be summarily forced to convert all your files just to make them work with another system. That’s going to be a tedious job, don’t you think? If you knew this would happen, would you still stick with a proprietary driver in the first place?
User-friendliness is another critical factor. Sure, open source software drivers are just that – open and give you the freedom of choice, but can they also match the level of user-friendliness that you have enjoyed with your current proprietary driver?
VoIP Drivers – Ekiga versus Skype
Let’s consider another angle. This time, let’s talk about VoIP drivers, particularly those for installing Ekiga and Skype.
Ekiga is not as well-known as Skype and its user numbers is certainly nowhere close to those of Skype. But it is an open-source program and in the past, it was the best VoiP and video conferencing application for GNOME and works well enough with Linux.
But then Skype became operable with Linux. Users of Ekiga could very well switch to Skype not only because it has made noticeable improvements with its previous driver issues but also for the mere fact that it’s also more commonly used by those using closed operating systems of Microsoft and Mac.
In the end, it’s still your choice, though…and a matter of finding the right balance between proprietary and open drivers.
Play It Safe with Video Driver Upgrades for Windows 7
If you’re not careful with your video driver upgrades, particularly those concerning the NVidia driver for GT8800, you could get into a lot of trouble when you have Windows 7 installed.
A Problem with Display
if you have the same PC system requirements – Windows 7 and NVidia driver – then you might have already encountered display problems. More to the point, you may have noticed that your windows have a hard time maintaining their position on 1 of two displays.
Another possible problem could be your dialogue boxes. Try to change their size and you’ll notice that your dialog box would ‘slide’ down your screen until it has completely sunk into your taskbar whenever you click on it.
A Problem with the Upgrade, Too
Like any normal PC user, you then resort to the upgrades offered by NVidia for Windows 7 users. Upgrades, after all, are designed to fix all such issues. The problem is, the upgrade you download might end up making your problem worse.
When you have the upgrade installed, there were no signs of errors. But don’t celebrate just yet because when you proceed to using your computer, you could end up experiencing the very undesirable BSOD or ‘blue screen of death’. This blue screen, with its white text explaining your present predicament, is virtually tantamount to your system crashing. Try rebooting your PC after this and if the BSOD still shows up then you should know that it’s your driver at fault.
Use Previous Video Driver
Don’t worry because there are various ways to cure your PC’s blue screen. Pull out the properties dialog box for your video driver. You’ll then see a button for ‘Roll Back Driver’. This comes with a helpful description of its function: if your most recent device driver update fails for whatever reason, clicking this button would allow you to forget about the new update and make use of a previously installed driver.
This is a very helpful option because its quick-fix solution will not affect the rest of the system. Only the update for the affected device will be changed; other device driver updates will be maintained.
Create a Restore Point
To play it more safely, you should also create a restore point with your computer’s System Restore Utility. It’s best to do this before allowing Windows Updates to run for Windows 7. Choose a particular function or activity as your restore point and your OS will go back to this point if you encounter similar problems in the future.
The Expert Chooses Linux Over Microsoft
This is a story of how one person, Keith Curtis, liked the operating system Linux over Microsoft. He worked for Microsoft for some time but for some reason, decided to quit and join Linux. When he joined Linux, what he installed was the Red Hat’s Fedora Core 3.
Kurtis was quite impressed after the Red Hat’s Fedora Core 3 has been installed because it had a graphical installer that ran all the way up to completion. While at it, it conveniently resized the NTFA partition. It also set up dual boot while allowing him to surf the Internet. Right then, he saw the potential the Linux has.
Kurtis, though, realized that even if Linux had great potential, it still was not on a trajectory to work for desktops. Let’s talk about the Linux Kernel. When you talk about the kernel of an operating system, it’s the very first software that the PC executes. It also mediates access to the hardware and manages it as well. All the different hardware in the PC would need its own corresponding kernel device driver that makes them all run first before the software can be used.
Although not known among desktops, Linux is used on a wide range among servers and embedded devices since it lends support to thousands of different devices while being clean, fast and reliable at the same time. The free software stack that is Linux-based took as much effort as the creation of the Space Shuttle.
The basic Linux Kernel operates on 8,000,000 lines of code that represents 4,000 man-years of engineering. If you were to add the amount of free software of Linux, together with the word processor, the web browser and the media player, the lines of code would be 10 times more than the kernel. And it would even be more if non-coding tasks such as writing documentation, artwork creating, strings translation and bug reporting are included.
Kurtis recalls how he primarily joined Microsoft because he thought the Windows New Technology kernel, still being used in Windows Vista today, was going to lead the brains of all computers and later on, robots all over the world. Bill Gates’ realized that the creation of the Microsoft DOS kernel, the biggest moneymaker, and later on became the Windows 9x kernel, was not actually a noteworthy engineering effort. He had to hire David Cutler of Digital Equipment Corporation to create a team that would build the Windows New Technology kernel.
Although Windows is popular when it comes to devices and servers, it never became as popular with desktop computers. One possible reason for this is that the code was not available for further extension and improvement. As for the Linux kernel, it was readily available for all the people of the world to tweak it so that it can run on their own hardware. It is simply because the Linux kernel came free when Windows NT was not available for computer experts to manipulate. That makes the Linux kernel more powerful than Windows NT kernel.