>install Windows 7 on a popular laptop from 2011
>barely any driver support, not even an ethernet driver, so I have to download them from another computer, put them on a USB thumbstick flash drive, and transfer them onto my laptop to install
>install Windows 10
>most drivers are installed out of the box except two, which have no Windows 10 drivers available
>install virtually any desktop Linux distro (I've tried Ubuntu, Mint, and Fedora)
>literally every single driver works out of the box, and in some cases even better than Windows
Explain.
>>55358882
delete system32
>>55358897
I'm using Linux now.
>>55358882
This is caused by the difference between free and proprietary software.
In the case of windows, the hardware manufacturer writes the drivers and either has to pay a fee for windows update distribution or has to take care of it themselves. They also have to target systems that are capable of generating profit.
In case of Linux, the community writes the drivers and does whatever the fuck they want with them. As granted by the four essential freedoms.
>freedom to run for any purpose
>freedom to study and modify
>freedom to distribute
>freedom to distribute modifications
And so your distro maker can distribute free drivers on the install media and have your updates all come from the same source.
>>55358882
>>55359081
And the propaganda aside, NT is a micro kernel while Linux is monolithic (with dynamically loadable modules), meaning that drivers are easier to distribute with the kernel on Linux and externally on Windows.
>>55359081
>the hardware manufacturer writes the drivers and either has to pay a fee for windows update distribution
Do you know how much this costs?
