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Linux's Sole Wireless/WiFi Driver Maintainer Is Stepping Down
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this post was submitted on 31 Jan 2025
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Understatement of the year LMAO nah it was terrible. Typically the top 3 biggest PITA common issues was GPU, WiFi and trackpad, in that order. Every. Time. Didn't have the right brand, you were SOL. If you had a Dell with that wonderful WiFi card whitelist the damn brands that worked were always off it or were crappy.
Though I'd take WiFi driver issues over having to deal with that dam GPU bumble bee-thingy (idr anymore, the gaming laptop GPU "hot switching" thing)
I'm going to go lay down and have my trauma flashbacks now...
I was going to say wrong transformer because the technology was called nVidia Optimus
But apparently there's an utility named Bumblebee to deal with it.
Haha there is no way that's accidental, typical nerd naming, I love it
Oh my gosh I'm so dumb. I've read the name of that tool dozens of times and never made the connection until now.
I think he was referring to the GPU switching software to make Optimus work on Linux.
https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Bumblebee
It's what happens when all the desktop hardware is designed for just one single OS's ecosystem. Running something else can be touch and go if you happen to have something slightly exotic, even if it has great specs.
It sucks, but it's still how the market works now.
And don't think that the few little companies selling Linux computers change anything. They just hand pick the Windows hardware that's known to work well.
All in all, it has gotten better though. Nowadays, Linux is acknowledged by a lot of hardware companies. They design for Windows, but a number of them will make an effort to release some sort of data, or driver, or something to get the Linux side going. Back in the 90s, it certainly wasn't as easy.
Sound, too, if you have anything better than just stereo.
Just getting audio period was a pain in the ass for me in the early to mid 2000's
Nvidia drivers are literally the reason I keep going back to windows on my gaming rig. Any time I get a Linux install working the way I like it, within 6-10 months the graphics would shit the bed and I'd fight with it until I gave up and went back just to have a working is with minimal after work IT bullshit.
All my servers are Linux tho. I'll probably try again later in the year when 10 goes EOS
Not saying you need to do this, especially if you do 4K, but my solution was just buying AMD GPUs. I'm on a Radeon RX 6800 now (RX 580 before) and things are just so nice and easy with my dual-boot.
If I had to give up either Linux or Nvidia, it's not even a question. It's Nvidia, and it's not even close.
I sold my 3070 and bought a 7800xt just so I could have a smoother experience, and I wasn't even having issues.
To be honest, wireless support in Windows has been shite, too. Terrible, unusable junk. Difference is that Linux has improved ๐