Having used Windows for many years, let’s talk drivers.
For instance, on windows machine, we have dedicated Realtek audio driver, providing a great sound quality. Whereas, on Bluefin gts, sound is low even at 100% and if volume goes above 100%, audio is distorted.
How is is the situation with graphics driver for instance? We have dedicated intel graphics driver. And in general, how does Fedora, Ublue and Bluefin compare Windows and Canonical when it comes to drivers support for the devices? ( I don’r use Nvidia btw)
At the end of the day, do we need to buy only specific machines (and which ones) to have Windows-type driver support?
Not sure about your sound driver but if you post more info about it maybe someone else can help.
Generally speaking: Fedora and Ubuntu both get their drivers via the linux kernel. So as long as your hardware is supported by Linux it’s a matter of what kernel they have. As of this writing Fedora is on 6.7.5 and Ubuntu 23.10 is on 6.5.
At the end of the day, do we need to buy only specific machines (and which ones) to have Windows-type driver support?
I purposely only buy equipment that is supported with an in-kernel driver.
Realtek audio default volume being low is a problem across ALL Linux distros, as far as I can see, since its a kernel driver/firmware issue. Distros can’t really do much there. I have a realtek audio chip and I need to set Vol at 125% to be reasonable. And I’ve tried Bluefin, Kinoite, Debian and CachyOS (Arch derivative) all recently. Same across all of them.
It is the same story for all drivers. Now something like Debian may give even poorer results than the rest if your h/w is very new (my wifi adapter, another RealTek chip, already several years old, still needed to have firmware manually downloaded on Debian before it could use the chip, while it worked OOTB on Bluefin, CachyOS and Kinoite), since their base packages tend to be significantly aged.
But Fedora & derivatives, Arch & derivates as well as latest Ubuntu ought to all be roughly the same reg drivers. Yeah its always better to research a bit before buying hardware for use with Linux, even in 2024. Though in my experience its tough since manufacturers always ‘advertise’ Linux compatibility but what they really mean is it will be compatible with a specific Kernel version, or it will work with all the bells and whistles on Windows but will work the bare minimum on Linux, just enough that you can’t accuse them of not supporting Linux. Sadly I don’t see this situation changing unless more people start using Linux.
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