Not going to surprise anyone but Windows Mixed Reality VR headsets aren't great on Linux, at least with controllers
Although that is improving!
For the curious https://lvra.gitlab.io/docs/hardware/#xr-devices according to which quite a few WMR VR HMDs are supported via the Monado SteamVR plugin.
Racing wheels lacks Linux support. It's the biggest, actually only, reason why I'm dualbooting with Windows.
I've been trying to get my Thrustmaster TX to work on Linux Mint but no success so far. I'm still a little bit newbie with Linux so that might be the reason why my wheel doesn't work (yet).
For debian / arch / fedora based distros: https://github.com/Kimplul/hid-tmff2
Looks like it's not perfect however looks to be a good starting point.
Fingerprint sensor on most laptops
This has been a real issue yeah.
the new one😂
I am surprised to unable to find this type.
Honestly, Linux has better support for the old hw, even better than m$ win.
About 10% of the hardware in my 2016 MacBook Pro. Twice I've tried to install Debian on that Satan spawn using various gists online, and each time I ended up deciding it wasn't worth the time
Every other piece of hardware I've tried in the past works without fail, that MacBook irks me.
My two biggest issues have been HDR and simulation hardware.
It's been a good few years since I've tried it but every time I've tried HDR my saturation just gets cranked to 11 and it looks like those nature photos that are edited to hell and back. Not sure why, and I've heard other people got it working so idk. I think it's just the Nvidia drivers doing their thing and not working.
But controllers for flight and racing Sims are the biggest headache to get working. And then when you do get them working you'll have issues with games running well and detecting them (I think this is actually due to proton/lutris), issues with force feedback, issues with the various buttons and sliders that aren't the primary axis. And then, after you spend hours getting them to work, it'll just break again the next time you want to play. My sims and FPS games are the only reasons I still have a windows install.
Some MediaTek WiFi cards are not supported. I had to replace one in a laptop.
Mediatek chips sucks anyway
I replaced a Realtek one because it constantly dropped connections. Luckily, this was one of the type of fixes that actually turned out to be easier than it looked.
Yeah I got a USB wifi dongle that's a bit tricky. It doesn't work out of the box in most distros but there is drivers for it that do work, fairly well.
Broadcom, as you've discovered. That's the one brand that I've always had trouble with; they go out of their way to be closed source: never publishing specs, never responding to developers. They're horrible to the point where I will not buy any product that uses Broadcom chips. Which used to be a PITA because they were also common.
Fingerprint readers, in general, also widely seem to be poorly supported.
One of my computers has a MediaTek wireless chip where WiFi isn't supported but Bluetooth does.
A lot of people have problems with NVidia cards; I've not had trouble with either AMD or Intel GPUs (although, I think all Intel GPUs are CPU integrated?).
Multifunction printers are still iffy, and even just plain printers can give grief; I've come to believe that this is simply because CUPS is ancient and due for a completely new, modern printing service. It's an awful piece of software to have to work with.
I have been fine with both Canon and Lexmark and also a Brother unit that someone in my family owns that their new Win11 machine refused to talk to; I opened up my ASUS t-pad with Ubuntu and printed in five seconds.
But yeah CUPS has actually caused many a headache to the point that I’ve disabled it on some units.
Fingerprint readers, in general, also widely seem to be poorly supported.
Not sure if it technically counts as fingerprint readers but using my YubiKey Bio daily, for login on my desktop and WebAuthN and... 0 problem.
Cups is so much better then everything printer related that is available for Windows and it works so good that even Apple was not able or willing to create something on their own and are using it their OS on all devices. Yes, the web interface is dated but nearly every Desktop comes with a modern integrated interface for printer setup and configuration. It is ages that I had to use the web interface. Cups comes with a boatload of printer drivers out of the box. And if not then there are often PPD files on the homepage of the printer manufacturer.
Multifunction printers are a special case and if they are supported or not depends either on how the device is build (are the parts addressable Independently as printer, scanner, modem/Fax) or is it all a integrated mashup that needs special software or drivers from the manufacturer. In the first case can the printer part often be used with cups and the scanner with sane. Well in the second case there is not much that Linux developers can do without support and goodwill from the manufacturer.
Brother printers have a good reputation in the linux world. Not sure what the current status is... My printer is over 15 yrs old
Fwiw, mine has worked with no issues on any of my Linux PCs.
Not technically hardware itself but Nvidia + Intel hybrid graphics have never really worked for me
I just bought a laptop yesterday (NVD GPU+AMD APU), and graphics hybrid work just fine for me, maybe AMD is that good that it make NVD GPU work on Linux.
That was a nightmare I'll never recover from. That laptop is now running windows 11. It's what made me promise myself to never ever touch Nvidia ever again. I'm now all Red on my desktop and life is so much better.
Similar story here. I had a laptop running nVidia/Intel dual graphics for a few years and it was so fucking finicky. Primusrun this, optirun that. Ugh. Once upon a time, whenever I heard the word Optimus, I thought of transforming trucks with laser guns. Hearing that same word now puts me in a fetal position.
To any GeForce owners that are considering going Linux full time: do a test run first and see how it works out, because nVidia support on Linux is spotty at best.
Yes, that and bbswitch. Never got it working.
So far I've been playing with Linux on my old work laptop and they've been playing together nicely. Almost everything else about the laptop? No. But hey at least graphics works.
Anybody ever get Winmodems to work or did they all give up on it?
Back in the day, it was hard enough getting dialup internet working on Linux (especially before you had internet in your pocket, so you had to print out HowTos or write down a bunch of notes before you tried to do it).
But it was downright impossible with a class of modems that was designed essentially as a softmodem, heavily reliant on closed-source firmware and drivers, making them practically impossible to work on Linux.
nvidia cards are always giving people grief, especially on Wayland. Technically supported but practically not recommended if you want an easy time
I always hear this, but I've been using Nvidia with Linux since 2004 and have never had any issues.
If you have a GTX 10xx card or later, their are virtually no issue with Wayland anymore. I have two PC with nvidia cards and had almost 0 issue with gnome plasma and hyprland in the last two years.
i have more problems with them on x11 honestly
Internal HDMI capture cards are barely supported, there are some professional brands like blackmagic that have support but nearly all consumer grade capture cards are not supported at all, because the companies who make them don't care about Linux.
USB based capture cards often work because they use the same standard protocols as USB cameras.
Probably not the kind of hardware you're thinking of but I have an old Roland synthesizer, an Edirol SD-90, that did not work on Linux. Now, I didn't expect it to given the hoops I had to jump through just to get it to work on modern windows. So Linux seemed out of the question already. But can be a big deal depending on what you use your computer for.
The lack of support seems very daunting at first.
I started thinking "Oh I wish I could transition to Linux, away from Windows, but what about the latest hardware or random gadget?"
The trick is to flip the question around, namely not "Does my current hardware work with Linux?" but rather "Am I sure my next hardware work well with Linux BEFORE I buy it?" then this remove 99% of headaches. It's typically 1 Web search away from either a lot of complaints or positive feedback... or not much, and then it's up to you to see if you are ready for an adventure. If there is not much but there is some standard interface, e.g. Bluetooth, and no need for a proprietary application, it's nearly sure the main features will work. If a proprietary application is needed, then safer to avoid.
So.... yes maybe surprisingly a LOT of hardware does work well with Linux!
What does not work for me, to give a random example, is the LED controller of my desktop case, which I bought several years ago while Windows was still my main OS. I didn't put a lot of effort into it, cf https://gitlab.com/CalcProgrammer1/OpenRGB/-/issues/1683 but the recent article posted on this instance, namely https://lemmy.ml/post/32389687 makes me want to give it another go at some point!
iPhones
If you mean interoperability there is https://libimobiledevice.org/ but honestly compared to what KDE Connect can offer with Android phones it's just ... lame.
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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