My leopard installs went fairly smoothly. The only real driver I had to add
was one for my OkiData c5300 printer. My Vista installs were not nearly as
nice, and I have spend days of my life trying to find the drivers I need for
various systems. I skipped the 3+GB of printer drivers on Leopard and started
wondering if there's a better way to do all this.
Both Apple and Microsoft seem to take a 'lets include as many drivers on disc
as possible' approach, but I think this is wrong. The only drivers the install
disc should need are ones to allow it to boot and get online (ethernet). If
your system isn't online when installing, then you're out of luck just as if
you only have a CD drive and want to install Leopard. Hey people it's DVD only
for modern operating systems and I'm arguing that they should require the
Internet as well. By having just enough to get the install operating and a way
to connect to the Internet it should be possible to have an online database of
every driver made and auto-download those drivers for your specific system
during install. This keeps the size of the disc itself down and may prune out
unnecessary data on install.
Take this to the next level. Not only does every component on your system get
its driver from an online database, but this also happens during new device
installs after the OS is already loaded. If I buy a new Logitech camera there
should be no CD in the box whatsoever. Simply plug the camera in and the host
operating system goes online, finds the driver, downloads and installs the
device for you. I always get the latest device software and driver designed
specifically for my host OS. When the driver is updated it would be
included with the software updates as an optional install, which allows me to
keep my system fully up to date with the latest.
When it comes to device drivers the system as a whole is broken. Trying to
find the appropriate driver for a device that shows up only as 'sound adapter'
is a huge pain involving cracking the case and looking at what card I
have or buying software to detect the hardware. This may be part of the reason that no system is in place like this
today, the computer has no idea what device is really plugged in. I doubt this
is the case as sites
like
driverzone.com
have tools that can find devices labeled 'sound adapter' and correctly
identify them without cracking the case as well as give you the proper driver.
These applications are a great time saver today, but shouldn't they be part of
the OS be default?
The closest I have seen to a great driver system is the Linux live install CD.
It's not perfect, but it's darned impressive. If these guys can do it, why
can't Apple or Microsoft take it to the next level? Heck why stop at drivers,
why not have a list of Applications that I can download right from the OS?
Linux does a pretty good job of the applications downloads as well. It's
features like this which, while requiring quite a bit of polish, make the
Linux platform more and more appealing. Don't get me wrong, Linux still has
device driver issues, but they are actually innovating in this area as opposed
to just sitting back and doing what everyone else does.
Why do we still get device drivers on CD/DVDs or have to hunt for them online?
Why is there 3+GB dedicated to printer drivers in Leopard? How many
wasted hard drive sectors did Apple just burn through by installing all those
drivers and all those systems by default? Isn't it time for change, and if so who will do it
correctly first?
1. Posted by: Steve Green on October 29, 2007 1:49 PM:
I like it and I don't think it would be too difficult to set it up. No doubt that there are some details to be worked out, but the technology is more than available. The only problem I see is that for "some" people, the internet is not an option. I don't have any first hand knowledge of these people, but around here (Wash DC) I don't imagine you have to go very far to find a network that's air locked. Good news Osama, thanks to Ben there aren't any printers at the CIA and now the terrorists have won! If only we had been allowed to provide a driver CD...
What about 3rd party drivers/software.. How does a product like VueScan get added to the great driver registry and become a candidate for installation when I plug my scanner in for the first time, or can it?
As for 3GB of drivers on the HD, that's not too bad relative to the size of a standard HD these days. What I want to know is why the vast bulk of the printer drivers have to exist in the first place. Why isn't a PPD (or something like it) enough for just about any printer?
Food for thought.. dine at your own risk.