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by R0b0t1 1677 days ago
Driver support isn't a given. There's lots of normal hardware which may never be server qualified. You can make a desktop that will run server fine, but it's kind of a Linux situation; you can't pick random parts and assume they'll work.
2 comments
thunfischbrot 1676 days ago
Heard several people claim that, along with stories about how Office 365 wouldn't work, or Photoshop, or recent browsers etc. Each time I would check I was able to call their bluff.
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chronogram 1677 days ago
I have yet to run into this problem, do you have any examples? I don’t have any exotic hardware outside of the ThinkPad X220 dock which nowadays only works with Linux.
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R0b0t1 1677 days ago
Yes, most startling was Intel iGPU drivers not installing, as well as AMD GPU drivers not installing for non-enterprise cards. Then people have mentioned wireless and bluetooth typically being nonfunctional. Your touchpad may not work if it is I2C or if the PS2 bridge is USB. You may also be unable to get computer peripherals to work if they are not designed to be driverless.

I suspect power management is also poor.

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stordoff 1677 days ago
> most startling was Intel iGPU drivers not installing

On which version? I'm running Server 2016 (Datacenter) with an Intel iGPU, and I don't recall having to do anything special to get it working.

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R0b0t1 1677 days ago
The Intel CPU in a Surface. From memory the mobile iGPU had a different model than what shows up in a desktop. I also read AMD iGPUs were failing.
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spijdar 1677 days ago
Not a problem with drivers per se, but Bluetooth is totally unavailable on Server SKUs, outside installing a proprietary Bluetooth stack outside the windows one.

Another issue I've run into was Server 2016 not having trackpad drivers for a Dell laptop's I2C bus/trackpad.

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rbanffy 1677 days ago
Thinkpads are a good bet for Linux compatibility because they are very popular with Red Hat and Ubuntu kernel developers. They’ll do whatever it takes to make Linux run well on their machines.
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chronogram 1677 days ago
In a sense yes, but like my current Latitude 7xxx and those original Thinkpad Xxx it’s just paying for a premium product and getting premium hardware and premium chips inside so I get hardware that staffs a development team that makes good drivers and that has manufacturers that staffs a development team good enough to put it on fwupd.
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formerly_proven 1677 days ago
no tux no bux
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