this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2025
149 points (70.5% liked)
Technology
69770 readers
4175 users here now
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Our Rules
- Follow the lemmy.world rules.
- Only tech related news or articles.
- Be excellent to each other!
- Mod approved content bots can post up to 10 articles per day.
- Threads asking for personal tech support may be deleted.
- Politics threads may be removed.
- No memes allowed as posts, OK to post as comments.
- Only approved bots from the list below, this includes using AI responses and summaries. To ask if your bot can be added please contact a mod.
- Check for duplicates before posting, duplicates may be removed
- Accounts 7 days and younger will have their posts automatically removed.
Approved Bots
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
Yeah every thread is basically “lol bro just use Linux, skill issue”… I’m very comfortable with Linux, shell scripting and all those things. Been doing is almost 30 years. There are a wide range of things that are just not supported, which makes it a non-starter for a lot of people.
It's because, for the vast majority of people, it isn't an issue. Web browsers work fine and gaming is pretty much solved. If you're doing something technical enough to require specific software then you're technical enough to figure out if it works for you. If you aren't then it will work for you, and solve a lot of the issues Windows causes too.
Doesn’t change the fact that I would love to get off of Windows but still rely on it! I am a technical person and have discovered that currently Linux is just not an option for my needs.
I wanted to give new life to an old acer laptop/tablet hybrid. I installed Linux, but the webcam and microphone just won't work no matter what. The power button also doesn't work.
There's still a long way to go before any casual user would accept this.
Your edge case is not indicative of a larger trend.
It is. If you ever try to plug a webcam or use any conference software on Linux. I will not speak about audio if you have to handle multiple sources...
I haven't had any issues with webcams or conference software (Jitsi, Zoom, and Discord).
You are using the WebRTC stack that's why. It's done by your browser. Bad quality, low stability ,not secure. Plus WebRTC can be used by malicious site, by default you should disable it. Nope I am talking about videconferencing software like Webex, ...
The good news is this isn't an issue for most people, it was free, and your device was already doing so poorly with Windows you felt it was at the end of its life, so even not working perfectly it still worked.
Edit: Also, Linux isn't one thing. Your distro may not have included the packages to make those devices work, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. You could have searched for a solution, or perhaps a different distro would work.
This was the result of much research, I'm not entirely new to the space. No one got these peripherals to work on that device, unfortunately.
I don't understand what you mean by this isn't an issue for most people. Most people do care about a webcam not working right. Or do jou mean my device isn't representative? That could be, but it doesn't mean people with this device have a good Linux experience if they install it.
Yes, this. Most devices it just works, and a small minority will work with a little effort. A miniscule number will be like yours. It isn't representative of the average experience. It's an outlier.
Out of curiosity, how long ago was this? It very well may have the support now, though if it's from some manufacturer using proprietary drivers for their webcams, for some crazy stupid reason, then maybe not.
Most of manufacturers use windows drivers, due to the market share it is realistic. It is plug and play and work like a charm. After years of using Linux half of the devices will never work on it, mostly because nobody cares. The other half will need tuning to be usable if you are lucky. 2% will ready for Linux.
Including :
This was just two weeks ago, and it's a relatively old device, from 2014. It's proprietary bullhonky all over that device unfortunately, from the screen brightness to the webcam to the bloody power button.
It depends about what you plan to do with your computer it's not the best music, graphisms, streaming, ...even if there are solid improvements. Usually you will get more chance with an old device than a brand new one.