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Why is Software for Hardware Always Sucky?

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f0dder:
Yeah, it sucks. Sucks, sucks, sucks. Add printer and scanner drivers to the bunch - they've always sucked, but it's gotten extremely bad in the latest years, where printer drivers have started advertising for printer cartridges.

Phone connectivity... several hundreds of megs installed, whether it's Nokia or Sony/Ericsson or whatever. I try to stick with S/E because I can then use the nice unbloated MyPhoneExplorer :-*

Eóin:
I try to stick with S/E because I can then use the nice unbloated MyPhoneExplorer :-*
-f0dder (February 22, 2011, 01:08 PM)
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I use that with my Android phone just fine, so that opens a load more phone choices for you in future.

nosh:
+1 on the general issue. Don't even get me started on Nokia software! And I've had a mobo vendor offer to install the Yahoo Toolbar once the driver installation was complete. ;D For f***s sake, it's a new PC!! Give me a couple of weeks at the very least before offering to do it in!

JavaJones:
Yeah, it's really pretty awful. I heard of this new one, i-something.... tunes maybe. Anyway, I guess it was a music player or cd ripper or something at first, but now it controls a bunch of different hardware devices, including phones and stuff that have nothing (necessarily) to do with music. Weird stuff...  :P

- Oshyan

Paul Keith:
Because it's mostly closed software/specs.

Software for hardware is one of those things that few companies realize would boost their sales if it is further open-sourced.

Not only will it get rid of them needing to support everything - it's a good start for them to finally start acknowledging their customer service support rather than constantly hiding behind obscurity.

Unfortunately this is another area that seems like it's waiting for a large tech company like Google to "Android" about. There's firmware like Tomato and DD-WRT but companies know few people know anything about these things and the ones who do... well it's not like the hardware are as cool or as exposed as Apple's gadgets.

Also crappy shiny interface means the illusion of making minor upgrades seem like major steps. Neither the casuals nor the non-casuals really notice this but hell it's like your average best seller. Initial sales and then after that just hardware:

To quote 40hz:

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=25820.msg238241#msg238241

I think this is just another classic case of a bright non-technical newcomer, who is thinking outside the culture, coming face to face with and older and established "tech & coding" crowd who don't feel a need to automatically go along with everything they're being cajoled into doing.

Shuttleworth no doubt feels unappreciated and not getting the respect he should. And the old guard are likely feeling that somebody who's mostly talk and charisma is trying to coopt or dominate the work they've dedicated hundreds of unpaid man years developing.

Sad thing is, they're both right and wrong in feeling the way they do about each other.

It's a complicated set of issues. Unfortunately, Bruce Byfield can't seem to see much beyond what's directly in front of him when he wrote his article.

And when I see people like inkscapee wondering whether it's "fanboy fickleness" or Canonical being "more into serving their own interests than creating a great Linux distro" I just have to laugh.

Canonical HAS created a great Linux distro. One which did more to successfully popularize Linux than the rest of the combined community was ever able to do. So to make a comment like that is (to be polite) somewhat misinformed.

Maybe he should try writing for the WSJ or the NYT? They're where you go to read tech columnists who show a talent for getting a story almost right.

I personally think the biggest problem for some dragons in the Linux community is that Shuttleworth is not out to personally destroy Microsoft, or humble Bill Gates, like they are. (Not that Shuttleworth's such a prize package either.)

Ah well...growing pains, real issues, and geek politics - combined with just a dash of green eyes. That's what makes the NIX world go round.
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