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Some heroes don't wear capes
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this post was submitted on 28 Jan 2024
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The thing with drivers is that the hardware they're written for doesn't really change. A particular network card is always going to behave the same way. Once the driver works well, it's pretty much complete, and the only changes that are needed are bug fixes, updates to handle new firmware, or adjustments if the kernel changes some implementation detail of how drivers are used. There could be months or years between updates to the driver.
Some manufacturers have great first-party Linux support. Intel is a good example - they contribute a lot of code to the kernel, and their drivers are maintained by employees.
Yes, but someone still has to implement that "a thing or two" in it every few years.
Agreed. But, to be honest, most aren't. Just take a look at Realtek. There's bound to be at least one chip made by them on your board (in most cases, two, LAN and audio, two very crucial pieces of hardware).
Realtek NICs are junk (even the buggy Intel I225-v chip is better) so I try to avoid them, but I honestly haven't ever checked which sound chip my motherboard uses. I'll have to check if it's a Realtek one. Realtek is generally the lower-end manufacturer for cheaper products.
Realtek is basically on every retail motherboard manufacturer. Gigabyte, Asus, MSI, Biostar, ASRock, etc. If you're talking about hi-end or server grade motherboards, yeah, but let's face it, the chips are cheap so they're practically in every household.
I've got a "ASUS ROG Strix B550-F" which wasn't exactly a high-end motherboard when I got it (I got it because it was cheap), but it's got an Intel chip rather than a Realtek one. The lower-end motherboards have Realtek NICs but I usually don't get the cheapest of anything since there's usually a pretty big difference in quality if you spend just a little bit more.
The Intel I226-V chip on that motherboard is only $2.87 each (for quantities of 1000, even cheaper for large bulk orders) and the manufacturer can likely use the same PHY chip and timing components, so it doesn't really increase the price a lot to use a non-Realtek chip.
ROG is a Republic Of Gamers edition motherboard... it's probably a lot more expensive than the lower end models (like my Z97-K board for example... and that wasn't cheap as well, like 100€ back in the day).
I guess the definition of "cheap" varies from person to person. My definition of cheap is lower end (50, 60€ tops) motherboards. I don't buy those either, but make no mistake, they're a common household item in 3rd world countries (I can vouch for that).
I have no idea what the prices are for a Realtek NIC vs. other manufacturers. All I know is, they're usually the default choice for cheaper models... which probably means they're dirt cheap. Have no idea how this compares to Intel or other manufacturers (Marvel, Qualcomm, etc.).
In general, yes, those NICs are cheap. But, let's take USB to Ethernet adapters. I don't think Intel has a solution for those things... or if they do, it's probably more expensive than the one Realtek offers. It's $5 on AliExpress. They're not great, but they get the job done (no wifi, no onboard etherent plug on a brand new laptop, and you need internet to get it up to date with drivers). I haven't looked for anything else since this one does a great job, but I guess that, even if there is an Intel based solution out there, it'll be at least tripple the price of the Realtek one.