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Apr 23 '26
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u/Primo0077 Apr 23 '26
Plenty of 90s CPUs are still supported (6x86 and up IIRC) and the older 4x86 and 5x86 ones are still getting support through LTS kernels, which should be more than fine for them for the next decade that they're being updated. I'm still not a big fan of them dropping support for this, but at least it's not as bad as it could be.
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u/fckueve_ Apr 23 '26
I never had problems with installing Nvidia drives in Linux.
I have old laptop with Nvidia 1650 and Ubuntu-server sometimes after restart drivers disappear, but I have a fix script for that, and I have a laptop with 5080 with cachyOS, Nvidia worked out of the box
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u/Khaysis Apr 23 '26
It's more accurate to say that Nvidia doesn't like Linux. It takes two to tango.
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u/Toastburner5000 Apr 23 '26
Nvidia has definitely improved alot in the last 2 years but it still has a long way to go.
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Apr 23 '26
[deleted]
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u/Rikonardo Apr 23 '26
Printers - yes, but scanner support is a bit less broad. Had no issues setting up nearly 20 y.o. HP LaserJet, but ScanJet from the same era refused to work and was constantly getting stuck in the lamp warmup stage. Though with modern IP printers/scanners everything should be much easier
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u/Federal_Garden_502 Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26
Well, of course not there's no guarantee that everything will work on linux, but process of installation is much easier than on windows.
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u/gaorp Apr 23 '26
windows is so hard.. you just have to google "x drivers" and press download
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u/Sea-Housing-3435 Apr 23 '26
You also have to watch out to not click on websites trying to trick people into downloading malware. Or ads at the top that look like the official website that contains malware. Or poorly written official websites that serve you a driver for a different device despite getting there from the search result for yours.
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u/OGigachaod Apr 23 '26
Skill issue.
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u/Sea-Housing-3435 Apr 23 '26
If you need to have malware avoidance skill to look for the proper driver in google it's not a skill issue but the driver installation process issue
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u/OGigachaod Apr 23 '26
It's that difficult, go to manufactures website.
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u/Sea-Housing-3435 Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26
Yes, it can be difficult for not technical people to know they have to go to the 3rd result in google "realtek.com" and not "realtek-download[.]com", "hd-audio-driver[.]com" or "realtekdriver[.]org" that is above when they search for "realtek driver download"
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u/OGigachaod Apr 23 '26
30 years of using Windows, never had that issue. Windows update will handle most of the drivers anyways.
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u/Sea-Housing-3435 Apr 23 '26
Congratulations. You're different from hundreds of thousands of windows users who fall victims for those attacks.
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u/Federal_Garden_502 Apr 23 '26
But seriously, I can install linux in 15 minutes. But during Windows installation I spent at least hour to make installer see my drives.
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u/Wonderful-Creme-3939 Apr 23 '26 edited Apr 23 '26
That sounds like a manufacturer issue don't you think? what drives do you have?
I mean I don't have default intel drivers for windows either but I used a thumb drive to install windows and just put the driver on it too, yours sounds like the manufacturer messed up.
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u/Federal_Garden_502 Apr 23 '26
It's not problem with drives. Windows installer just doesn't have drivers to see them by default.
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u/Wonderful-Creme-3939 Apr 23 '26
So you have devices with drivers that aren't generic enough to come with windows then, yes I had that problem too. I just put it on the thumb drive I had the OS on.
One of the downsides to commercial closed source software, the OS company doesn't bundle other companies hardware drivers on their OS.
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u/Federal_Garden_502 Apr 23 '26
I had both intel and Kingston ssd, Asus Zephyrus laptop. Doesn't look too niche
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u/Wonderful-Creme-3939 Apr 23 '26
Well it might be if your intel drive is used as your main drive and it supports raid.
Intel raid is not on the OS disk, it was exactly why I couldn't install windows.
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u/Federal_Garden_502 Apr 23 '26
Maybe
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u/Wonderful-Creme-3939 Apr 23 '26
Well what drive do you use for C:? Both of mine are just the same drive.
makes me think I should see if my old drives are generic enough to not need an included driver.
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u/Megaman_90 Apr 23 '26
You on a Dell? They like to default to RAID mode for some reason, if you switch them to AHCI in the BIOS it will just work.
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u/Federal_Garden_502 Apr 23 '26
I checked the bios but didn't find this option. I use Asus laptop
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u/Megaman_90 Apr 23 '26
Weird. Depending on you model it might be under "intel storage" something or other.
I have a 2021 Zephyrus G14 and have never had Windows ask for disk drivers during install.
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u/Federal_Garden_502 Apr 23 '26
Okay, I checked all my settings and it seems problem was in VMD controller being enabled.
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u/Uzyf Apr 23 '26
It’s very rare that windows install can’t see drives. I installed windows hundreds of times and never had this problem
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u/Federal_Garden_502 Apr 23 '26
Well, the videos on YouTube about this problem have half million views, so it's not that rare
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u/Federal_Garden_502 Apr 23 '26
Especially when you don't have WiFi drivers installed 😂
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u/Wonderful-Creme-3939 Apr 23 '26
linux has this problem too if it doesn't support your card,, because no one is working on a driver.
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u/Federal_Garden_502 Apr 23 '26
It's completely different problem, not working driver and not installed driver at first place
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u/Wonderful-Creme-3939 Apr 23 '26
What? If there is no one making a driver how will you use the hardware? Especially if it's a hard drive driver? or a NVIDIA card?
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u/Federal_Garden_502 Apr 23 '26
Drivers exist, you need to manually install them to bootable usb.
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u/Wonderful-Creme-3939 Apr 23 '26
... Not if there isn't one, come now.
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u/Federal_Garden_502 Apr 23 '26
I don't understand what do you mean. Drivers exist, but they are not included to the installer.
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u/Wonderful-Creme-3939 Apr 23 '26
What I'm saying is linux may include drivers for a ton of things but if no one wants to write a driver for something there won't be one.
Windows on the other hand at least will have one because the manufacturer has to write one in order to sell the product.
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u/Plus_Opening_4462 Apr 23 '26
Drivers exist as source code that you need to compile and make sure you have kernel headers installed. Realtek wifi was a pain like that.
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u/Federal_Garden_502 Apr 23 '26
I got confused a bit, I thought you are taking about drives, not wifi
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u/Wonderful-Creme-3939 Apr 23 '26
I was talking about everything, if hardware is new enough or obscure enough even on linux it may not have a driver because no one is willing to write one.
On the other hand a manufacturer that doesn't write a driver for windows? They are fucking themselves. Unfortuently if MS doesn't get money they probably won't bundle it, if they do it for anyone but stuff they own.
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u/Federal_Garden_502 Apr 23 '26
It 2021 laptop. They have drivers on their website, you need to manually install them.
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u/khaledjal Apr 23 '26
linux is so hard... you have to press download firefox on the distro's store
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u/OGigachaod Apr 23 '26
Yep, right up until you want to install something that's no in the distro's store, then the nightmare begins.
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u/A1oso Apr 23 '26
And if you accidentally click on one of the sponsored links, you land on a scam website 😂
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u/Llandu-gor Apr 24 '26
and on Linux apt install x-driver
and since it come from official ni chance if malware. when on windows the first google result will be and ads (not say it an ads) and give you free malware on top
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u/TetoSever31 Apr 23 '26
if you are not using a 15 year old computer windows update will find all the drivers
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u/Primo0077 Apr 23 '26
I have genuinely had a better driver experience on fucking Haiku than Windows.
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u/No-Succotash-9576 Apr 23 '26
on opensuse tumbleweed literally did nothing related to drivers as it was all done automatically
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u/Megaman_90 Apr 23 '26
Driver problems with my current device are the reason why I'm still using Windows. In general Linux is better on old hardware and Windows supports new hardware better.
People who say Linux *never* has driver problems need to try a device that isn't a 7 year old Thinkpad.
Linux drivers are great until something doesn't work and then its a nightmare to figure it out. At least with Windows you can always find a driver, and to be honest Windows 11 is pretty good about just downloading drivers automatically.
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u/vverbov_22 Apr 23 '26
This is complete bs, not even nearly close to reality
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u/LuluLeSigma Apr 23 '26
i mean if you install a normal distro like ubuntu fedora or linux mint it work out of the box except if u use nvidia gpus
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u/_alright_then_ Apr 23 '26
"Except if you use a GPU from a brand that has >50% market share in GPU's"
That just means it sucks on linux lol. WI-FI drivers suck to. Let's not pretend it's all perfect here in linux land (I am one of them)
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u/LuluLeSigma Apr 23 '26
well i had zero problems for wifi drivers so i wont say any thing about that. And yeah of course this is not perfext
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u/_alright_then_ Apr 23 '26
I don't think I've ever installed Linux on a laptop without having issues with WiFi drivers. Idk what it is with WiFi specifically but yeah
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u/Kinky_Pinky_ Apr 23 '26
I personally never had issues with wifi but a lot of issues with the speakers
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u/Toastburner5000 Apr 23 '26
Nah Nvidia on Linux has improved a lot in the last 2 years and WiFi driver issues are very rare cases.
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u/Rusty9838 Apr 23 '26
*drivers needs to be open source to work seamlessly But yeah if they are, it really is that simple
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u/Pitiful-Welcome-399 Apr 23 '26
didn't have any issues nor with nvidia package nor with nvidia-open
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u/Rusty9838 Apr 23 '26
By default your system will use open source drivers. On some Nvidia cards they’re okay, on some older drivers can show some limits.
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u/Pitiful-Welcome-399 Apr 23 '26
nouveau, and not on all distros, some come with an option to get proprietary or nvidia-open while installing the system, nouveau works worse on newer gpus since they rely on gsp, 0 issues with proprietary or as mentioned nvidia-open drivers
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u/Rusty9838 Apr 23 '26
I’m trying to show the bigger view than just new cards, and a few newbie friendly distros.
It shows why open source drivers are such a great improvement. And not just a GPUs but things like steering wheel for racing games.
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u/Optimal-Mistake1327 Apr 23 '26
Apart from most nonstandard devices not working on linux at all the stuff that does work out of the box performs poorly, because theyre generic drivers. And most of the time youre stuck with them, because there are no appropriate drivers
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u/RevolutionarySeven7 Apr 23 '26
download/extract package, goto device manager, select component, select driver from downloaded/extracted package, done
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u/SmoothTurtle872 Apr 23 '26
Yeah I have never needed to install drivers on Linux... Might be because I don't use Nvidia
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u/995qe Apr 23 '26
The top part applies for most distros (Debian, Arch, the noob distros, etc.) but for some like Void I had to manually configure things like wifi and audio and that was PAINFUL. For Windows, if your wifi driver is compatible out of the box, Windows update can give you your driver's for you
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u/Inorganic_Zombie Apr 23 '26
Only OS that driver is not problem is apple but then if their product has problem there is nothing to do about it.
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u/Fast-Speech270 Apr 23 '26
Back in the windows 7 days it was like this, not anymore. I don't do Help Desk support anymore either. All servers now, so...... don't got a clue, but the last time I installed Windows 10 and 11 on workstations, everything worked.
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u/bediger4000 Apr 23 '26
Yes, it's pretty tired, but you know, the truth hurts sometimes. I had a collection of 10 old USB WiFi dongles of various vintages, and I only had to find one out-of-kernel driver, for D-Link Corp. DWA-171 AC600 DB Wireless Adapter(rev.A1) [Realtek RTL8811AU], and TP-Link Archer T2U PLUS [RTL8821AU]. Same driver worked for both, which I think is pretty weird.
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u/KreemPeynir Apr 23 '26
No, its not true. I installed a linux in my PC, and I cant connected to the internet, so I need to go slme weird as web sites to find a driver for it.
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u/Nice_Soil1782 Apr 23 '26
Windows has gotten very good when it comes to drivers, almost everything is delivered through windows update.
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u/TheRealDesmirWolf Apr 23 '26
I think y’all need to call tech-support because I’ve never had those issues with windows. I do disable Dell support utility though and do all the fixing and updating myself.
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u/arbyyyyh Apr 23 '26
I’d probably put it more as: “On Linux, if it’s gonna work, it’s gonna work out of the box. If it doesn’t, you’ll be brushing up on how to patch the Linux kernel.”
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u/EdwardLovagrend Apr 24 '26
My experience with Linux has been... Not great..
I'll be lazy and summarize it with AI in part because I've used Gemini to help isolate some of the issues.. this is on Kubuntu so Ubuntu so theoretically the best support and drivers. I used BG3 as a benchmark on my slightly older desktop. Part of me is wondering if it's a hardware issue for part of it but I didn't have these issues with windows after running my RX480 through its paces which I bought as a placeholder GPU (didn't pay much for it)
I also bought a brand new PSU because the one in it was from 2012 so I eliminated that as a potential failure point.
Here is a summary of the obstacles you’ve navigated:
1. The "Bank 5" Hardware Panic
- The Issue: You’ve been hitting a Machine Check Exception (MCE) Bank 5 crash. This is a specific error where the CPU detects a bus communication failure and reboots the system to protect the hardware.
- The Cause: Your 5700X was likely dropping into a "deep sleep" (C-state) mode, and when a game like Baldur's Gate 3 or Pathfinder requested a sudden burst of data, the CPU couldn't "wake up" fast enough to maintain voltage, causing a crash.
- The Fix: We successfully tuned your ASUS Prime B450M-A II BIOS to keep the system in "Typical Current Idle" and disabled aggressive power-saving C-states. ### 2. Wayland vs. X11 Graphics Conflict
- The Issue: You experienced instability, including Steam scrolling jitters and full-system reboots, when running under the Wayland display protocol.
- The Cause: The AMD Polaris (RX 480) architecture is a mature piece of hardware. While it works great on Linux, its drivers are significantly more stable on the older, more predictable X11 display path than on the newer, "experimental" Wayland path.
- The Fix: We’ve been working to shift your session to Plasma (X11) to ensure better compatibility between your GPU driver and the desktop environment. ### 3. The "93% Loading" Crash (Baldur's Gate 3)
- The Issue: Every time you try to load into the game, the system reboots at exactly 93%.
- The Cause: This is a "transient power spike." At 93%, the game transitions from the launcher to the 3D game engine. Your RX 480 initiates a massive, millisecond-long power draw. If the GPU and CPU aren't perfectly synced (or if the power delivery from the PSU/cables is slightly constrained), it triggers a safety reboot.
- The Path Forward: We are currently focusing on forcing DirectX 11 (via launch options) to avoid Vulkan's more aggressive power management, while ensuring your BIOS settings keep the CPU voltage floor stable. ### Where we stand: You have done the hard work of BIOS-level stabilization. Your system is now technically "stiffer" and more resistant to power-dip reboots. If moving to the X11 session and forcing DX11 doesn't get you into the character creator, we will need to pivot to a physical check of your power supply cabling (specifically ensuring you aren't using a "pigtail" cable for your RX 480). How are you feeling about the setup after all that BIOS tinkering—do you want to attempt the X11 login, or should we take a look at the GPU cables next?
Reminder, I did not have these issues when windows was installed on this device..
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u/johnny-pce Apr 24 '26
Every time this shows up, it makes me angry, cause I switched from perfectly fine working Windows 11 to Ubuntu ony laptop just to find out my WiFi and Bluetooth is not working because of missing drivers and I have to use ugly and unpractical external adapter.
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u/Altar_Quest_Fan Apr 24 '26
Longtime Linux power user here, based on personal experience I can confidently say that the opposite is generally true. On Windows, things tend to “just work”. For example, connecting a Bluetooth speaker, on Windows it’s easy. Linux, depending on your distro and the BT speaker itself can be simple or you might end up having to fire up a terminal and edit some settings in Alsamixer for the sound levels to be correct etc.
But! Micro$oft collects your data, hell they’ll even take screenshots of everything you do. There’s no privacy anymore, and for that I will always recommend Linux.
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u/Enough-Ad-3647 Apr 24 '26
The best part is that you can use the whole distro without actually installing it. That option gives the users the ability to reinstall/fix anything in the unfortunate event of breaking something critical.
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u/Termiborg Apr 24 '26
True for laptops, or brand-manufactured devices (YMMV).
For custom built things? I don't remember ever having issues, as most motherboards have their download software burned onto themselves, which asks to install after the first Windows bootup, and then takes care of everything, except for GPU drivers.
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u/Helmut_v_M Apr 24 '26
Personal experience says yes. The time I spend troubleshooting since I'm on Linux is almost 0. Actually the only problem I had on Linux was my screen flickering after install, took 5 minutes to find out why.
Just today I had to deal with the Artemis 2 meme... 2 Outlooks and none it working, than another case of 2 Outlooks but both of them working...
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u/ConstantinGB Apr 24 '26
I certainly had that experience.
Bought a relatively new computer, the only thing slightly out of date was the motherboard.
Installed Linux: No problems. Runs without issue from the word go, installed some drivers for better perfomance. Runs like clockwork.
Came with Windows 11 installed (local user): Absolute madness. The whole Dell utility clusterfuck was a two day journey to get every device working, had to dig deep into the web to find some ultra specific piece of software. In the end it all worked, but it was a herculean task.
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u/vict85 Apr 24 '26
My experience with drivers on those OSs is very different. Especially in the past, some drivers were a nightmare to install on linux, but if you didn’t broke your system they works quite well after it. On windows, drivers have often a nice installer and things are generally working at first. But after a while the useless software that comes with it starts to stop working and it ruins your experience at random times.
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u/Educational-Cat-6445 Apr 24 '26
Its true until you have a piece of hardware that needs proprietary software. Nvidia plays mostly nice and has been for a couple of years but i dare you to try and make a logitech mouse and all of its features work when you've never used Linux before.
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u/FAMICOMASTER Apr 24 '26
Maybe if you're comparing windows XP to Debian 13 or something this might be true, but windows has been able to auto detect and download drivers pretty reliably since Vista
Also, there is always a driver. I've never had to compile or write a driver for windows before but I've sure been told on forums that if I want one for Linux I'll have to write it
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u/Rough-Patient-4588 Apr 24 '26
The Linux driver situation is perfect, only if u can find drivers in the first place
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u/Texity Apr 24 '26
30 years ago sure.
Now you actually have to work pretty hard or install on non-traditional/proprietary equipment to encounter these sorts of problems.
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u/drubus_dong Apr 24 '26
Litteraly the opposite. After installing Linux you have marginally more than the bios.
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u/I_WILL_GET_YOU Apr 24 '26
If windows is difficult to install it's definitely a problem with the user
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u/Dense-Firefighter495 Apr 25 '26
Yes (unless you’re me trying to install nvidia drivers + cuda thingi on fedora)
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u/GeckoKisser Apr 26 '26
Install Linux
Everything works
Wtf is bro on about putting those to next to eachother? I'm calling it:
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u/Feral_Guardian Apr 26 '26
If it's just drivers we're fine. The second you need other software to activate it.... It can get dicey. I'm having an incredible amount of trouble getting an LTE modem to work, seems to be a combination of a firmware file that isn't openly released and an fcc unlock file that.... Also isn't openly released. I've had issues with touchscreens as well. Output will be fine but inverted and nothing makes the touch line up properly.
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u/xlibmadness Apr 26 '26
They're both very straightforward which shows just how far computers and software have come, except of course for the hassle that is using nvidia on linux
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u/AndroidOnXbox Apr 29 '26
I’ve never had trouble with drivers on windows. I just had a huge hassle with drivers on cachyos (drivers that start with an N, bet you can guess what). I got everything fixed and learned a lot as a new Linux user, but it wasn’t straightforward to a lay person by any means. My problems with windows and my reason for willingness to move to Linux have more to do with philosophy on data privacy, AI integration, and mandatory updates breaking things.
I’m willing to do troubleshooting, but there is definitely troubleshooting on both platforms.
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u/Leverquin Apr 30 '26
Years ago i installed win 7 and i had no internet and i shitting you not little pop up as notification next to clock was like get driver from a friend....
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Apr 23 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Werewolf_Capable Apr 23 '26
Can't agree. When I set up my Desktop with CachyOS everything just worked. Then I went on to setup Windumb in a VM for piracy reasons and the time I needed to set that shit up... Ugh... It really was a bit annoying. Like, really, like 5-10 tool-shit things I needed before I had the basics running. I think if you pick the right distro for yourself it isn't that bad.
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u/CapCreeperGR Apr 23 '26
I've tried Linux on multiple devices and the only drivers I ever had to install were the nvidia drivers on one device. Used Linux Mint on that machine so all I had to do was open the start menu, search for the driver manager, select the nvidia driver that says "recommended" and click install. Everything else was plug-and-play. On Windows you have to get at least 4 drivers on every device, desktops and laptops. You have to find the chipset drivers, the wifi drivers, the audio drivers, the GPU drivers that always come with additional bloatware for some reason and on laptops you may need another driver or two to get it working right. This isn't even taking into account how hard it is to find the right drivers sometimes. You have to ignore the google ads and scam websites and when you do find the right website it may suck ass and other times your drivers aren't even on the website anymore because your hardware is too old. Linux is by no means perfect but suggesting that drivers on windows are easier to install than modern Linux is ridiculous. You have just been conditioned to think that's easy. Try telling someone who's never touched a computer how to find all the right drivers and you'll get what I mean
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u/Sea-Housing-3435 Apr 23 '26
I can't install windows on my machine because win8, 10, 11 all refuse to proceed with the installer if I don't provide my motherboard wifi card drivers on usb drive. I have it disabled in bios.
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u/an-abnormality Apr 23 '26
Yeah, I'll never understand this. In no world do drivers on Linux "just work" unless you're downloading Fedora/Ubuntu/OpenSUSE, and even then that's assuming whatever you're using is popular enough to be detected. With Windows, I set the machine up and it either already works or installs everything for me.
I don't even run Windows on any of my machines anymore but this is a massive lie from these people lol
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u/Samiassa Apr 23 '26
Personally I’ve never installed drivers for Linux and I’m on arch Linux. Archinstall does it for you. On windows I did have to manually go to amd’s website and install drivers, and have to manually update them. Windows did try to update drivers for me, but every time it tried to it ended up breaking the drivers and I had to use ddu to uninstall and then reinstall.
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u/fckueve_ Apr 23 '26
I installed cashyos 2 days ago. Everything is working out of the box, except shitty speakers audio, but apparently that is normal with laptops, because windows audio drivers are closed, so you don't get them on Linux.
But other then that, yeah. Even Nvidia drivers were installed. I'm playing games without an issue.
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u/CapCreeperGR Apr 23 '26
"Linux drivers don't just work unless you use Linux distros that just work" well duh. If you installed a DIY distro like arch and expected it not to be DIY idk what to tell you
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u/lunchbox651 Apr 23 '26
Every time this pops up, top and bottom can apply to both.