Can anyone tell me how easy is it to change over to linux and get drivers for printers , scanners and video di

Question

Thank you all for your good advice and the links you provided for me you were all very helpful and gave me some new knowledge thanks again much apreciated

Answer 1

The first place is to research the hardware you have to make sure it is supported under Linux and specifically under the distribution you are interested in running. The simplest way is to get a "LiveCD" which lets you try Linux without modifying your existing operating system. While this method is slower since it works only from memory and CD, it lets you try the different distros until you find one you are comfortable with.

I highly recommend finding a book to help you learn Linux (either from a public library or purchased) since it will allow you to read along as you perform the various tasks without needing your computer to view online documents. This is especially helpful during the installation steps.

Printers from major brands (HP, Epson, etc) have good support under Linux (http://linuxprinting.org)

Scanners are hit and miss, although a new scanner is cheaper than an upgrade of Windows these days.

Just about all video cards are supported using a fallback driver (vesa.) 3d acceleration is available for major cards such as Nvidia and ATI using the proprietary drivers from those manufacturer's websites.

Answer 2

It's not easy at all. Unless the linux distro you get has the drivers you need built in then you may find yourself out of luck. You can install drivers in Linux but it requires I believe an apt get command followed by extracting the file to the appropiate directory and then installing it and sometimes you have to specify where it has to go. Most WiFi devices are unsupported, printer drivers is a hunt and peck kind of thing, you might find it, might not, scanners are the same way. Video drivers, ugh, don't get me started. The only one to ever correctly identify my video card was Ubuntu but it still refused to recognize my WiFi card. So yeah, Linux is harder to use, harder to get drivers for and when you do find "drivers" they may not use the device to its fullest. There is a third party utility that allows you to pull the driver from Windows and convert it for Linux which is just a major pain, I never tried it and I never intend to.

Answer 3

If your HP is historical sufficient to have ever had a ninety eight driving force, you may also have already got it and do not understand it. Run the gamut to hooked up a brand new hardware object, move to handbook choose for printers, choose HP from the menu and spot if that mannequin is indexed. If it's, you could have the driving force in a cab dossier. You might must get it from the ninety eight disk although, however in case you wouldn't have one there are lots of round and such a lot any pc geek can get you a duplicate. Can't support so much at the Canon besides to ship you again to them. You will have down-loaded the mistaken driving force or your down-load is also infected. Try to re do it from them. Contact their carrier help if all else fails.

Answer 4

It's easy to make the switch in many cases, and there are friendly GUIs available - such as YaST in SuSE which will hide the technical details.

Printer support:
http://gutenprint.sourceforge.net/p_Supported_Printers.php3
http://www.linuxprinting.org/printer_list.cgi

Scanner support:
http://www.sane-project.org/sane-supported-devices.html

Video drivers - Virtually every video card will work to some extent, as there are common standards for some modes. Full support varies between cards - manufacturers that release specs for their chips will come with support out of the box. ATi and nVidia refuse to release specs, and instead release their own drivers - these may have to be installed manually, but some distros offer tools to download and install them automatically.

The big part of switching is adapting to new programs. These days, many popular Linux apps are available for Windows, so you can make the switch with these right away, and be sure your files will work when you move over. For example, Scribus for DTP, Inkscape for vector drawing, and Gimp for bitmap editing are all available.

Answer 5

It isn't hard to switch over.

It can be tough to find drivers, and even harder to implement them if you don't have clue in Linux.

If you have a goodly amount of RAM 512+ you could try downloading VMWare. It is a product that allows you to install an operating system inside your operating system. The cool part of this is that it allows you to run both OSs at the same time. The hosted OS will generally have the same functionality of the host so drivers will be less problematic.

I hope my rambling answered your question.

Answer 6

it might not be easy to use Linux but could be comfortable. unlike microsoft, the linux does not have user friendly gui... it is recommended for professionals......

Answer 7

http://www.linux.org/