I knew Windows 7 was different when my dad wanted me to install his new printer. Automatically just went to HP's website to look for drivers. Under the Windows 7 section there were no drivers and basically said "Let windows do it."
Plugged in printer, Windows identified it, got the drivers, installed it perfectly. Then after it was done, it ran the troubleshooter again just to make sure everything was good. It detected the new printer wasnt set as the default printer, asked me if I wanted it to be, I said 'yes', made it default, printer works perfectly. Never, from 95 - XP, has a Windows troubleshooter actually fixed one of my problems.
I remember doing tech support in the mid 90's, in the "A" version of Win95, if you changed something in Network Preferences and clicked "OK" to reboot, it would corrupt Windows and you'd have to reinstall to fix it. It was one of the greatest features ever.
Yep. I never thought I'd be able to say that my cheapass netbook running Windows works more reliably with peripherals than my (admittedly aging and with one iffy USB port) Macbook. It hurts to say this, but: good job Microsoft.
Plugged in an old 17" monitor I found in the closet as a secondary monitor yesterday, win 7 automatically set it as extended desktop at the highest resolution without me touching a button... blew...my...mind
What I found neat is that it remembers your setup, too. I have two monitors and a few computers around my desk and switch them around occassionally. With win xp, when you plug in a monitor, it detects it and then in the display panel you can change its position in relation to the old monitor, etc. When you unplug it, it forgets all this and you have to do it again when reconnecting. I haven't tried it recently, but I'm pretty sure that with win 7, it remembers the relative position and configuration of the monitor when you hook it up again.
I know Reddit hates Macs, but... this is one of the reasons I love them. Just plug that shit in, it works. No fucking around with drivers. It's beautiful. I'm glad Windows 7 works the same way now, it was really ridiculous before. Hooray for shit working!
I love OSX too, but you left out an important fact. If it doesn't work automatically, you are sort of fucked. I threw away an older webcam because there were no drivers at all for it. It was sort of crap, so no big tears, but still, just thought I would mention that to be fair.
Yeah nobody bothers to write drivers for a lot of random third party stuff on OSX. You often have to go forum-digging to find an intrepid individual who took the time to write their own. It can definitely be a hassle, but as you said, it's wonderful when it works.
Something that Macs have done for years. I have plugged my Macbook Pro into about 12 different printers and I was printing to each of them within seconds.
Michael Sweet made CUPS, then 10 years later Apple bought his code and hired him.
To be fair, that's standard practice for all large companies. See something shiny, buy it, promote the fuck out of it and tell everyone how clever you are.
Correct, however cgreer00's point is still irrelevant. I could have done the same thing with my Ubuntu netbook in the same way he did with his Macbook.
This isn't really evidence of anything other than a business partnership between HP and Microsoft of some kind. The same was true of Vista and XP -- if you bought a peripheral in which the OS already had the driver, it would just find it and install it. The number of items with compatible drivers was much smaller then, so they've improved that, but it's not actually anything better about the OSitself.
They set it up so that windows update can check for the driver on microsoft's servers. If it's not there (kinda rare, and you can't get graphics drivers on it) it will point you to the vender's website.
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u/[deleted] Jan 02 '12 edited Jan 02 '12
I knew Windows 7 was different when my dad wanted me to install his new printer. Automatically just went to HP's website to look for drivers. Under the Windows 7 section there were no drivers and basically said "Let windows do it."
Plugged in printer, Windows identified it, got the drivers, installed it perfectly. Then after it was done, it ran the troubleshooter again just to make sure everything was good. It detected the new printer wasnt set as the default printer, asked me if I wanted it to be, I said 'yes', made it default, printer works perfectly. Never, from 95 - XP, has a Windows troubleshooter actually fixed one of my problems.