Of course being able to compile the kernel yourself is an advantage but my point was all drivers (except the ones need to boot) should be external to the kernel. For example if the kernel should only have ext3 driver (or wharever file system you use) built in so all the other drivers can be loaded. This would save resources because when I'm not reading my ntfs or FAT32 drive the driver doesn't need to be in memory.
Redhat doesn't, but it would be better if you could just download and compile another module that can be loaded on demand to read the ntfs drive instead of bloating up the kernel.
You can put all drivers external but that's just stupid as it messes up your lsmod and makes the computer slower. If you compile everything inside the kernel and only the ones you'll need you won't have sluggish problems. I don't see why you would wan't to recompile the kernel every week or so alternatively unload/load modules frequently because of driver support. It's not like the average person would bring home a new gadget every week.
Windows drivers are always loaded. They don't load on demand. The only problem I see in linux is that It's harder to recompile the kernel or make the modules than to click an .exe file. And you said you weren't able to remove them on demand?
As I said before Windows XP does not support auto loading of drivers. At least not by the looks of it in processmanager plus all compability problems when not uninstalled.
But guess what, practically Linux supports fast module loading but you'll do that manually. In linux you just do
#rmmod *modname*
and when you insert it
#insmod *modname*
This Linux ntfs driver is pretty shitty as it only really supports read only access. I'm not makeing a point here because ntfs is Windows not Linux and read only access is good enough anyway.
Oh sorry I do have a point, the Linux ntfs driver isn't as good as the Windows driver because the people who wrote it did so by a process of reverse engineering - similar to how most Linux drivers are written.
The ntfs driver does support writing with the captive option and I know people who have been able to transfer a lot of files to the disc without problems, but yes it ins't safe. Why bitch with ntfs btw? Why not just create a spare fat32 partition.
Sorry, while they may be anough to get your system booted no Linux distribution has contained drivers for my printer/scanner, winmodem, and the graphics card driver is always slow.
For people who have used Windows before It's pretty sad if their comps components won't work with all drivers provided but you should always check the compability list for Linux drivers before you buy anything. That's what I've done before I've bought my computers. You can't buy extremely rare hardware and say that the driver support sucks because the hardware not being compatible. I wasn't so sure about ATI and Nvidia cause I used Windows pretty often. That's why I choosed an ATI card.
In general most long-time linux users are either aware of the driver problems/incompability which makes them switch brands when buying a new one. Those who are using their older incompatible computers are becoming fewer.
I thought Linux was supposed to be so stable a reformat is rarely needed. 
I referred to Windows off course. I guess I wasn't clear.
The disc that came with the printer?
You should just keep this in a safe place with the printer manual warranty ect.
That's your fault for loosing it, you should keep it in a safe place.
I didn't, some friends did.
If they kept in in a safe place they wouldn't have this problem and all they need to do is download a small file from the internet anyway.
All soundblaster full packages are 100mb plus. Creative is a very common brand as their soundcards rock, specially for gamers. Another problem is that the current driver cd contains old mixer, surround testing apps and so on. Printers are another story.
I can see how this could be a problem, the only possible advantage of hacker-written drivers is that manufacturer support is not needed to obtain the drivers.
No there are other advantages as well. Millions of other people can make modifications of the driver and optimize it as they wan't. There can exist several versions of the driver which may work better on different machines.
Ok fair enough but lets not blame the operating system for driver problems as it's the manufacturer's fault.
Yes It's their fault because Microsoft include old ones when there are much better drivers available months ago for download. They just keep remanufacturing the same discs as the original XP plus the servicepacks which are often bugfixes not driverupdates. All they have to do is to update their disc when manufacturing. If they put the OS on DVD they could add all common driversets as .exe files on the disk. Similar how it is in linux. (as I did with nLite though only for my computer)
I'd say the Windows driver model is better for the same reason the Mac model is better than Linux because the manufacturers support them something that Linux just can't help.
The driver model has nothing to do with manufacturers support. Many manufacturers have released proprietary drivers that are available as modules which are loadable and unloadble, not like in Windows where you need to uninstall the whole driverset and reboot.
Now that is a very good idea, I think I'll need to upgrade though, while 256MB of RAM might be good enough for what I currently use my PC for I'll need more to fit two operating systems in memory but it might just be worth it.
Actually 256mb ram should be reserved just for the VMWare OS. I have 2gb ram and have reserved 512mb. That should be enough. So totally 1gb of ram should be recommended when using VMWare.
All I was saying was that it seems strange a Windows driver binary compiled for a very old kernel works on the most recent kernel and a Linux driver designed for a very slightly older kernel won't work even though it's compiled from source.
It may not work correctly performance and functionality wise but It doesn't bring down the whole system like certain older Windows driver do when you put them on for ex Win XP SP2.
Maybe I'll go back to the slightly older 2.4.x kernel the next time I can be bothered to install Linux.
I was referring the 2.6 kernel thingie to PiratePenguin as you can see.
Yes it is a bit old, Windows 2000 was NT 5.0 and Windows XP sp2 is NT 5.1.26 - only a minor update which really takes this piss if you ask me. You pay though the nose for just a minor update with Microsoft software.
The kernel isn't the bad part of Windows anyway I think Cutler did a very good job. The bad part of Windows is all the other shit that's wrapped around the kernel.
Yes, true. I don't think that the DOS kernel would have suited so good in WinXP, lol. They were kind off forced to write a new one.
So simply my thoughts about drivers:
* Feature wise and compability wise Windows drivers are better.
* Fast unloading/loading does not exist in Windows. If you need to disable them you need to restart the computer or disable them in autostart if that even is possible.
* The distribution of the drivers is better in Linux as they are provided on for ex livediscs. On Windows disc they are few and you see below they are often old which will need to be updated later on.
* When recompiling to a new kernel you get all the driver updates. If you need proprietary you can download them separatly. In most cases people only need 1 or 2 propriatary drivers.
* Many drivers for chipsets like for ex bluetooth work for severel kinds of units not just a certain brand. The same can be noted for Wireless cards. motherboards and so on.
* Provided drivers on the Windows discs even SP2 are old . They should update them regularly and if they just use the extra space on the cd they could stick in some more. DVD's would be perfect.
