Re: Comparison
"One is known for being generally stable, reliable, and consistent, the other... well, less so."
I'm going to quote a lovely reply from Ezzy Black, originally posted on ExtremeTech, in relation to this:
"It's kind of like a Microsoft update. 1.5Billion computers, 750 million hardware configurations, 1 million drivers from 100,000 vendors and people are constantly surprised when every last PC on Earth doesn't work right."
I wish Linux supporters would see the truth of this. Linux on the Desktop has never been able support every hardware configuration out there, simply not even bringing a large number of configurations up to functionally, but somehow that is never really held against it; "It's a great OS!". In the meanwhile, Windows is responsible for keeping a practically mathematically-infinite number of hardware configurations running, some with hardware decades old, but when some unforeseen event occurs in even but a few of the untold millions of possible user configurations out there utilizing drivers Microsoft doesn't even make, "What a terrible OS!".
Let's just take my own configuration into account. Your 'stable Linux web server' doesn't have to support:
a 7-year-old scanner; web cam; Quadro GPU acceleration API support;; multifunction printer; pro inkjet; digitizing tablet, wireless mouse and keyboard; docking station with extended port support; fingerprint scanner; color-calibrated 4k display; built-in hardware color calibrator; external hardware color calibrator; calibration software; two NVMe SSD's plus a SATA SSD, the latter being accelerated by the OEM-supplied RAM cache driver; proprietary power and thermal manager; multi touch trackpad, plus pointer stick; tethered MILC camera capable of supplying Live View; SMB1 support enabled to allow talking to older SMB devices, most Linux-based but will never see a kernel update to enable SMB2; support for a device connected via a USB-to-Ethernet bridge
plus more, never mind the myriads of software installed, some of which Linux simply and flatly does not support. And that's just my own configuration, never you mind what Windows is expected to support in my office!
It's complete apples and oranges. A Linux web server is built around the hardware that Linux will support; a desktop is built around the hardware that the user likes, wants, or expects to use to get a job done. But Windows is just expected to swallow it all and just work. Yet Windows is 'junk!' when it breaks because some company's drivers or software does nott work in this unimagined combination, a combination that Linux will *never* need to support in the first place.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
