[kfwhp]

That's got nothing to do with having a stable API. There are thousands of device drivers that were written over 10 years ago which work perfectly well on current versions of Windows and which will keep working for years to come.

Linux made the political decision not to allow this, at the expense of end users.

[ubercow13]

That seems the exact opposite of my experience. Most hardware drivers break after one or two Windows versions once the vendor stops updating the driver, eg. audio hardware, printers. On Linux things generally keep working. As an end user, having drivers in-tree is one of Linux's best features.

[lmm]

Having drivers in-tree is great, but a lot of drivers can't or won't be in-tree. My webcam (using qc-usb), PDA (using synce) and TV capture card (I can't remember what the project that supports those was called) all stopped working on Linux, even though the drivers were open-source and seemingly high-quality, because that's not enough for Linux - you have to be in-tree or you'll get broken.

[vetinari]

At the time when I had TV capture card (Hauppage PVR250; it was analog TV tuner with MPEG-2 hw encoder), it stopped working in Windows way before Linux: in XP, the driver installation was showing HRESULT errors, but once a blue moon it would succeed. Forget anything newer. With Linux, I think it should work with the current ivtv driver, but I don't have it anymore to try.

Another example are scanners. Does your driver for Windows use TWAIN? Well, then it won't work in Windows 10 anymore, which made WIA the only option. Lot of fun for folks, who were automatically updated.

[pjmlp]

Tell that to my Brazos GPU that lost capabilities with AMD driver's reboot.

Being open source didn't help at all.

[wtracy]

> thousands of device drivers that were written over 10 years ago which work perfectly well on current versions of Windows

Is that really true? A couple months ago I bought a USB to serial adapter that advertised Windows Vista support on the packaging. It did not work with Windows 10 at all, and I ended up returning it.

I have plenty of hazy memories of printers that worked fine under Windows 9x not playing nice with Windows XP.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

It's unfair to use printers as an example. For one, they're still a huge problem in Linux, but for two they're universally regarded as some of the crappiest things to work with in all of IT.

[vetinari]

Printers under Linux have also one positive feature: if the specific model is supported, it is really plug and play.

The hard part is to choose, which model to purchase.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

In my experience that is not true. The few printers I've had to set up on a Linux device required me to go find PPDs.

[vetinari]

My experience is, that I go to the printer control panel and the printer is already there.

Fedora & Ubuntu; mostly HP printers.

[AnIdiotOnTheNet]

You sound like everyone who talks about how Linux "just works" if only they choose exactly the right hardware and distribution combination.

[gmueckl]

Well, 9x and XP were two completely different operating systems that just implemented similar user space APIs. That was a one time transition. Drivers written for NT or 2k might have worked.

[elboulangero]

> Linux made the political decision not to allow this, at the expense of end users.

There are many pros and cons of having a stable API, and it can be technical and political and more. Saying it's just a "political decision" is plain wrong.