• home
  •  > 
  • Utilities
  •  > 
  • Linux compatible with Windows. How to check your hardware for compatibility with Linux? Executing programs from different versions of Unix

Linux compatible with Windows. How to check your hardware for compatibility with Linux? Executing programs from different versions of Unix

( 2007-08-15 )

To make a decision as to whether a certain computer can work well under Linux or not, you need to check all its components - video card, sound card, printer, scanner, digital camera and other devices for compatibility with Linux.

Of course, over the last decade, support for various hardware in Linux has improved markedly and now you have a fairly good chance of buying a computer and running almost any distribution on it without any problems. However, there is still equipment that is not currently supported.

Today, almost all equipment works well, but you should be wary of equipment that is controlled by programs rather than buttons. Because the programs are most likely written for Windows and sometimes Mac OS X.

Even when the manufacturer declares support for Linux, be very careful. Most likely you will have to go to the manufacturer’s website, where it is very likely that you will find not entirely up-to-date information. Searching on the Internet will also not be very useful, since it will ultimately yield many pages with outdated or not entirely correct information in your case.

Below is a list of some online resources, the information on which is regularly updated and is quite complete and detailed.

Video cards

If you want to check if your video card is supported, start with the X.Org website, there is a list of supported video cards. You can also check the manufacturer's website. This is true, for example, for video cards from NVIDIA and ATI. In addition, there is the Nouveau project, which develops open drivers for NVIDIA cards, and its brother - the Avivo project, which develops open drivers for ATI cards. However, none of these projects have yet presented an official release.

If you don't know what is better to choose - open drivers or proprietary ones - there are several ways to make this choice. Firstly, you can make a choice based on your philosophy, but most likely the choice will be made based on their functionality. The main problem with open-source drivers is limited or completely absent support for 3D capabilities, while proprietary drivers are slow and (especially ATI) unstable.

Another option is the policy of the distribution you are using. Commercial distributions like Xandros and Linspire usually come with proprietary drivers already included, while Ubuntu uses open source ones. True, Ubuntu also has Restricted Device Manager, which makes it easy to install proprietary drivers on the system. Fedora 7 is one of the first distributions to use Nouveau drivers instead of proprietary NVIDIA drivers whenever possible.

Sound cards

Unfortunately, there is no single site with detailed information, but you can check out the list of Linux-compatible cards on the Linux-Sound website. You can also get information from the Linux Audio Developers mailing lists.

Another good source is Soundcard Matrix on the ALSA project website. If your card is in this matrix and the Notes column is empty, your card is guaranteed to be supported.

Printers

You are guaranteed to work with any printer that supports Universal PostScript. However, if you want more detailed information, start with the Printer Compatibility Database, which is part of the OpenPrinting project (Formerly LinuxPrinting.org).

The Printer Compatibility Database is an almost perfect source of printer information. It contains almost all known printers. For each printer, it sets its own level of support: Good, Mostly, Partially and Paperweight :). The database also describes which driver works with which printer, and a detailed description of the settings for full use of the printer. As an alternative, you can choose a printer for your tasks, using part of the same database. All information is based on user reports..

Scanners

If you use a multifunction printer as a scanner, then the printer database can help you (see the previous chapter). However, the main source of information about scanner compatibility is the SANE Project Information Retrieval Service, which can help you find information about a particular model's suitability for use on Linux. If you encounter problems, it is best to ask questions on the SANE project forum.

Digital cameras

Modern digital cameras have abandoned the closed protocols of the past in favor of an open one - USB, support for which in Linux is at a very high level. However, if you still need to make sure that your camera will be supported, turn to the gPhoto project, which has a database of more than nine hundred titles. Another source is Hubert Figuiere's database, which contains detailed information not only about camera support, but also about configuring the system to use them.

Wireless adapters

A few years ago, the main gap in device support was modems. These days these are wireless adapters. In addition, the constant release of new models makes support even more difficult. For example, two related models may have fundamentally different firmware and, accordingly, require different drivers.

The only timely updated site with information on wireless adapters is maintained by Jean Tourrilhes and sponsored by Hewlett-Packard. The information on the site is posted quite chaotically, but you can figure it out if you want.

If your adapter is not supported, you may be able to launch it using , or, for Broadcom adapters, - . Both of these projects are actually wrappers for drivers from Windows or Mac OS X.

The downside to both programs is that you need to use lspci to get the Bus ID of your adapter. Therefore, before you buy anything, look at how many adapters similar to yours are supported by ndiswrapper.

Laptops and other mobile devices

Windows and Linux are the most popular operating systems on the world market. The debate about which one is better has not subsided since the advent of the systems. There are many adherents, as well as opponents, for each of them. Of course, both Linux and Windows have their advantages and disadvantages, which some users are willing to put up with and others are not. In this article we will try to once again pit these two giants against each other and finally find out which is better: Windows or Linux. Go!

Any platform has its advantages and disadvantages

Let's start with Linux. In general, this OS is less popular than Windows; working with it, as a rule, raises more questions among users. It is worth noting that Linux is more likely aimed at professionals, rather than at ordinary users. It is those people who want to get the widest possible possibilities when working with a computer who become the most ardent fans of this system. Now let's look at each of the advantages of Linux in turn.

The main and significant advantage is free distributions, the choice of which is quite extensive. Linux serves as the basis on which developers “hang” a graphical interface for the convenience of users. All distributions are official and completely free, which means that you have the opportunity to get at your disposal a proven and reliable OS, which is a licensed product. In this regard, Windows has nothing to brag about. The most popular distributions can be called: Ubuntu, Mint, Fedora, Mandriva - this list goes on and on. Choose what you like best.

Free software

As you already understand, Linux is a real find for those who want to use a high-quality, licensed product for free. The choice of programs is quite extensive, but you still won’t be able to use the most popular tools for free.

Variability

Linux is a very flexible system that allows you to do literally anything with it. This makes this operating system an excellent choice for programmers. Computer professionals can do whatever they want in Linux, creating a wide variety of software to solve a wide variety of problems.

Design

Although the beauty of Linux does not lie in the graphical interface, one cannot help but note the stylish and modern design of some distributions, which many will like.

Performance

Linux OS is absolutely not demanding on hardware and works excellently even on the weakest machines. Experiment with distributions and find the one that gives you the best features with maximum performance.

Now about the disadvantages. Linux, for all its functionality, cannot be called an entertainment system. This OS is definitely not suitable for fans of computer games. In addition, you will have problems using popular software products, and instead you will have to use their analogues, which few people are delighted with. To summarize all of the above, we can say that the Linux OS is really good for computer professionals, for whom it gives advanced work capabilities, and for those who need a free, licensed operating system and software products. At the same time, Linux can hardly be called a really good choice for home use.

It's time to talk about the mastodon and almost absolute leader of the operating systems market - Windows. This product from Microsoft is used on the vast majority of devices around the world. There is probably not a person in the world who has not encountered this OS. Some people like it, some don’t, but everyone has worked with it. Now let’s move on to analyzing all the advantages of Windows and try to reveal the reason for such success of this product.

Prevalence

The popularity of Windows has led to the appearance of a huge number of manuals and articles with answers to all questions related to working in the system or correcting errors in it. Although this OS is paid, there are not so many users of licensed versions. It is pirated versions of Windows that are installed on almost every computer in the CIS countries due to their availability.

Simplicity

A huge advantage of this OS is that it is convenient for both simple users and advanced users. Windows provides the ability to work in command line mode, make changes in the registry, and so on, but for those who do not need all this and who do not understand it, this OS offers a clear and pleasant graphical interface, which is not difficult to understand.

Games

Where would we be without this? Quite a lot of users regularly or occasionally play computer games. The undoubted advantage of Windows is that almost all existing PC games are compatible with it. This means that if you have a Microsoft product installed, you have access to a huge selection of computer entertainment.

Software

The vast majority of utilities and applications are created specifically for the Windows OS, which is very good for any user. All the most popular software products are implemented on Windows, and this gives you very wide possibilities when working with your computer.

Compatibility

Unlike Linux, you are unlikely to find any device that does not have Windows drivers. By choosing a product from Microsoft, you can say that you eliminate all problems with device compatibility, since all manufacturers primarily focus on creating products that are compatible with Windows.

Design

Recently, the OS from Microsoft can boast of these. The design of the latest versions is very distinctive and original. The huge tiles of version 8 were not to the taste of many, but the developers’ decision to combine new and old designs in version 10 of the system satisfied many users. Windows 10 very organically intertwines the classic features embedded in old versions with the most modern and newfangled developments.

Microsoft Office

Anyone who has worked in Libre Office on Linux understands that they have not come up with a better text editor than Word. This utility is truly indispensable in our time, and compared to it, Libre Office looks like one complete misunderstanding, working with which brings nothing but torment.

As for the disadvantages, the main disadvantage of Windows is that this OS costs money. This problem is especially relevant for the CIS countries. All users constantly download pirated versions that are not verified and reliable, and this, in turn, greatly damages the reputation of the Windows OS and the Microsoft developer company. Another drawback, which to some extent can be associated with the first, is frequent system crashes. Perhaps every Windows user is familiar with the “blue screen” or, as it is also called, the “screen of death”. Whatever one may say, the reliability and stability of this system leaves much to be desired. In conclusion, we can say that the strength of Windows is that it is a system for everyone. Everyone will find something of their own in it, regardless of their own skills or assigned tasks. We can say that this is what makes this product so popular all over the world.

As you can see, it is not possible to make a clear choice in favor of any of the systems discussed in the article. All that can be advised to you is to try to work with both one and the other, and then decide what is best for you. After all, everyone has their own ideas about good design, functionality, performance and other aspects in which comparisons can be made. With all the advantages and disadvantages of each operating system, it is impossible to give an objective verdict, since in the end it all comes down to elementary “taste.” This article is designed to give you the necessary food for thought, and it’s up to you to decide which is better: Windows or Linux.

Leave your review of the article and write in the comments your opinion about which of the reviewed operating systems you consider the best and why.

  • In contact with
  • regular form

    It is enough to understand once what a blue screen of death or bsod is, as you like. A blue screen is the inability to read a file. Moreover, it is completely impossible due to the absence of this file or due to the lack of a path to it. Now I’ll explain it easier. A file may be missing for two reasons. First. Damage to the hard drive, which is only possible on an old computer. Second. Driver mismatch. For example. A hard drive with a wide cable or harness, the so-called IDE interface, on which we install a new operating system that does not have such drivers. In this case, you need to take care and download the drivers separately and have them during installation. Another option. On a sata hard drive, or a new hard drive, we install an old operating system, for example windows xp, Zver, and so on. These operating systems do not include satov drivers. The result is a screen of death. There are no other options and cannot be. If the drivers fully match, everything will be fine if you don’t deliberately mock the computer and don’t pull the plug from the socket to please your crazy person. In this case, you will ruin your hard drive within a few starts and then you will receive a death screen due to an unreadable hard drive. It is better not to repair faulty clusters or places in the hard drive and not even waste time. The Winchester is a very complex device that requires respect and care. Take care of your computer. Don’t try to experiment, otherwise you’ll end up with such heaps and financial costs on your butt that it’s easier to buy a new computer.

    Author)))) What would you know. Linux is ideal for wild beginners and home use. At least because it does not allow you to delete your system folders in the usual way for Windows. Secondly, the same Mint Mate is very similar in the arrangement of buttons and program menus to Windows. Thirdly, what is missing from Linux for beginners? Specialized programs - that’s how they should be written. Fourthly, does Linux have poor technical support? I beg you)))) On the forums they will chew it out in a way that is not taught to pensioners in computer courses. And they won’t laugh at the same time.

    You must first work in LeebreOffiese to properly evaluate this program.
    I graduated from LeebreOffiese Institute, made charts and wrote my diploma there. 4.5 years of practice.

    All markers have different tastes and colors.
    Or someone can say with 100% confidence that the sea is still better than a lake, and the ocean is better than a river.
    Who is trying to prove what to whom? Unless you convince yourself once again...

From time to time you buy new equipment, and, of course, you want it to work on Linux. It’s not that the free community can’t or doesn’t want to support devices - experience shows that it can and does. The point is greedy and stupid manufacturers who do not want not only to write drivers for their hardware, but even to open the specifications for their devices. Typically, if the hardware doesn't run on Linux, then that manufacturer is generally not worth considering at all.

This post talks about Linux and installing hardware in Linux. Installing hardware on Linux is easy, and below are resources to help you do it.

Where can I find information on compatibility of devices and peripherals with Linux?
http://linux-wless.passys.nl/ - an expanded database of WiFi cards for Linux. This is the most complete resource for supporting wireless network cards in Linux, you can look by manufacturer - and if it is supported, the name of the driver is immediately given.

http://www.sane-project.org/sane-mfgs.html - list of scanners in Linux that are supported by the SANE subsystem. List of scanner models that work in Linux depending on the manufacturer. Compatibility levels: full support, partial, basic, no support. It also indicates what backend is required for the device to operate.

http://openprinting.org/printer_list.cgi - a database of working Linux printers supported by the CUPS printing subsystem, which provides Linux drivers for printers in Linux distributions. Convenient search by printer models and manufacturer. Gradations of compatibility: works, almost works, works to a limited extent, ballast.

Databases by device category
http://www.linuxcompatible.org/compatibility.html - a database of all Linux-compatible devices, from sound cards to printers and scanners. There are gradations of compatibility: it works perfectly, it works for the most part, some functions work, ballast. The database is very extensive and is updated from time to time by the site’s creators. Either way, a wonderful resource.

http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/ - database of devices supported by kernels 2.6.15 and higher. We simply copy the output of lspci -n from the console and get information about the support of the hardware located on the motherboard.

http://www.linux-laptop.net/ is the most comprehensive resource about running Linux on laptops. The page provides a classification by manufacturer, followed by links by model to specific pages of users telling what and how they did to get the functionality of their laptops. Most information is in English, but other languages ​​are also present.

http://start.at/modem is a great resource for supporting such defective devices as winmodems. It turns out that you can also extract something from this ballast: an impressive list of supported devices is provided.

http://www.phoronix.com/lch/ - user database of supported devices. It's starting to fill up, you can take part in it too. There are RSS feeds both for a specific type of hardware and for all of them at once.

- A wonderful resource on Linux devices with links to HOWTOs and “how to set up”. On the page there is a classification by device type, then there are links to how to set it up and what problems may arise. There are also links to general information on these devices. Very informative. There is a news feed for the site (new documentation).

http://cdb.suse.de/?LANG=en_UK - list of devices compatible with SuSE Linux. Updated database of devices compatible with SuSe Linux. As a rule, these devices also work in other distributions.

http://www.linuxtested.com/ - compatibility and operation of devices by distribution. The site contains information about testing devices in the following distributions: SuSE, Redhat / Fedora, TurboLinux, Debian, Mandrake.

http://www.linux.org/hardware/ - hardware that works in Linux. The list is not complete, but it can be useful - there is information about exotic hardware for which there is support in Linux.

http://www.linux-drivers.org/ - links to many resources on Linux compatibility. A large number of links to resources and hardware support in Linux.

http://hardware4linux.info/ - directory of Linux-compatible hardware, divided into categories: “works straight out of the box”, “works with modification”, “unknown”, “partially works” and “does not work”. A fairly large and constantly updated database of devices.

http://www.linmodems.org/ - a database of support for such vicious devices as Win modems. In them, all the main activities are transferred to the driver, written for you-know-what-system. As a result, there are almost no “brains” on the device, just as the manufacturers of such devices do not have them. Through the efforts of free programmers, many of these devices can be made to work in Linux.

The splitting of Linux into many distributions is undoubtedly taking place. But let’s see whether “the devil is so terrible” by first answering the question of what Linux is. First of all, this is, of course, the core. And this kernel is being developed within the framework of a single project, gradually accumulating branches and patches from many developers, and no tendency towards fragmentation of the system at the kernel level has yet been observed. Next is a complex of system environment: means of loading and initializing the system; kernel functionality support utilities; means of supporting user interaction with the system; system-wide libraries; graphical interface support tools; package management tools.

The system environment, in addition to the bootloader itself, the functions of which are exhausted at the start of the system and do not in any way affect further work, also includes a set of system initialization scripts and their configuration files. These sets are specific to each distribution, but any of them ensures the loading of all the starting services necessary for further operation - nothing more is required from them.

Utilities for supporting kernel functionality, tools for supporting user interaction with the system and system-wide libraries - all this is a long-established set of programs (it can be called Base Linux), originating mainly from the GNU project and related ones, almost identical in all common distributions and updated synchronously in them . So there is no special fragmentation here either.

GUI support includes the X Window System, window managers, and integrated desktop environments, along with the libraries on which they are based. The first is now in virtually all Linux distributions (and in most Unix-like systems in general) represented by a single implementation - Xorg. Of course, there are version differences here too, but they only affect the support for additional decorative functions.

What remains are the package management tools, and here, of course, the specificity of distributions manifests itself to a greater extent than in the set of initialization tools. Actually, the very specificity of distribution kits is determined by the principles of their configuration.

From the point of view of the "core manufacturers", there are only three completely original historical systems: Slackware, Debian and Red Hat. All the rest are either genetically related to them, or developed under the influence of one of them (although the influence of BSD systems cannot be discounted). On the other hand, the departure of “clones” from the ancestral distribution is only a matter of time and intensity of development. Who would think now that Suse comes from Slackware, and Mandriva (originally Mandrake) was historically just Red Hat with KDE as a desktop? On the third side, due to the open development model, all distributions are in a state of constant mutual influence, and it is often not possible to determine the degree of relationship between a descendant and its ancestors, which is directly related to the compatibility problem.

Division of OS by application - yes, there is a reason to separate general-purpose distributions and systems focused on special areas of use. But first, almost any general-purpose distribution can be installed and configured for specific use. Secondly, this is exactly how all special systems are created. Thirdly, distributions, created initially for special purposes, are often overgrown with such attributes as installers and package management tools, turning into “general use” systems.

In fact, there are only two significant classification features for distinguishing distributions: the form of distribution and the means of managing its components. According to the first of them, two groups can be distinguished: portable, or portable, and packaged. Portable distributions are usually called Source Based System, which does not seem entirely correct, since they are usually not distributed in source text form. Their main component is a system for obtaining source codes of author's packages from the Internet, assembling them and incorporating them into the file system of the target machine (a typical example here is Gentoo with its Portage system). In FreeBSD, from where this concept was borrowed, such a system is called ports, which is advisable to keep as the generic name for all such distribution component management tools. Accordingly, the gcc compiler and its accompanying build tools are an integral component of ported distributions. Batch distributions are distributed in the form of precompiled binary packages, which can either coincide with the original packages or be more fractional.

There is no sharp line between portable and packaged distributions. The former in any case contain a precompiled base system, without which the functioning of the port system would be impossible. In addition, no one forbids distributing them in the form of binary packages generated by the ports system (this is the main way of distributing FreeBSD). Package distributions often contain either independent “port-like” systems (Archlinux, CRUX), or their package management tools allow you to perform a total rebuild of the distribution from source (Debian and its clones). However, packaged distributions can be distributed without a compiler and related tools, but some kind of package management system is an integral component. Which one depends largely on the format of the packages: tar archives compressed using gzip or bzip2; rpm packages and deb packages. Accordingly, packaged distributions can be divided into three groups, each of which has its own set of low-level utilities for installing them, so using packages of one format in a distribution designed for another usually causes problems. However, this is not an insurmountable boundary, since there are tools for converting packages from one format to another, and many high-level package management systems originally designed for deb packages are successfully adapted to other formats.

Of course, it is not necessary that an arbitrary package converted to a deb-format package will be successfully installed on any deb-oriented distribution - in addition to possible dependency violations, differences in the file system hierarchy may also prevent this, but the need for such a practice arises very rarely. In fact, replenishing the distribution with packages, resolving their dependencies, adapting to functioning in the environment of a given system, updating versions is the task of distribution builders, which they cope with quite successfully.

Long gone are the days when programs were written with a focus on a specific distribution. Today they are almost always created for use in abstract Linux, or even in a Unix-like system in general. In any case, adapting applications for a specific distribution and system is the concern of its assemblers. Of course, it would be reckless to expect compatibility guarantees from the assemblers of freely distributed distributions (as well as from the developers of any free software), although in practice this guarantee is reputation. But distributors of corporate editions of commercial distributions Red Hat, Novell, Mandriva provide such guarantees.

Nevertheless, the problem of compatibility of distribution kits and application programs exists, but it concerns not open and free software, but proprietary software that is not available in source code and therefore cannot be adapted to a specific system by modifying it. The manufacturers of such programs themselves test their products for compatibility only with some distributions and do not guarantee their performance on any other systems. Thus, until recently, only Red Hat and Suse were certified to work with the Oracle DBMS (now Oracle’s “own” distribution has been added to them). IBM's core products, such as DB2, are targeted at Red Hat. However, everything is not so scary here either. Firstly, the absence of a manufacturer's warranty is not at all equivalent to the guaranteed inoperability of its products in other distributions. Secondly, for example, the purpose of creating such Red Hat clones as Scientific Linux is precisely to achieve the full functionality of the parent system, including from the point of view of compatibility with third-party applications. And thirdly, running proprietary programs on systems that do not seem designed for this is often achievable using special techniques.

Leave your comment!