 Hey guys, I'm out in the woods today. I'm taking in a little bit of nature this weekend trying to relax take it easy Basically just trying to take it a little slower here in the last week or so mainly because there for a few days I was under the weather. I was a bit sick and then getting over the illness I felt like you know, I needed to take a little bit of a break been been pushing it a little hard So I'm walking around in the woods today and I did want to make this bayou boomer vlog here today Basically because I've been getting a lot of new to Linux users A lot of you guys are switching from windows coming over to Linux because you've seen some of my videos But when you get here, you're having problems and especially people keep asking me about hardware compatibility Especially they buy these pieces of equipment these really cool pieces of equipment that don't have Linux drivers And you guys are wondering Why that's the case and you know, it's just gonna always be a problem And it's one of the things that you have to understand as a Linux user compared to being a Windows user Is we're a much smaller market share as far as desktop market share So therefore you can't just go buy any piece of computer equipment any peripheral and think it's gonna actually work for you You have to be careful You actually have to check before you buy something and make sure that it actually supports Linux that it has a Linux driver because when you buy a piece of hardware that hardware only works when you plug it into your computer If there's a driver if there's that company made a driver Which is a piece of software that makes that thing work on that computer using that operating system and unfortunately a lot of these Companies that you know make things like printers and RGB devices You know keyboards mouse that have the RGB lighting that a lot of the gamers You know none of that stuff works on Linux and the reason it doesn't work is because That stuff requires drivers and these companies that make these kinds of devices typically they don't write Linux drivers You won't find a Linux driver for these devices and you have to be careful It's one of those things as a Linux user I learned a long time ago when I first switched I had the exact same problem when I switched to Linux about 13 14 years ago the printer I had at the time was a Canon printer didn't have a Linux driver So when I switched from Windows to Linux my Canon printer became a paperweight Without a driver it'll never work and I wasn't gonna run Windows anymore I wasn't gonna run Windows just to have that printer I went and bought a new printer and at the time, you know, I knew Canon was a problem I knew Lexmark was a problem typically you wouldn't find Linux drivers for your Lexmark printers and people I asked the community they all went to Linux forums and asked hey What printers actually support Linux and people recommended things like Epson Brother those two companies have pretty good Linux support and what I found was HP Hewlett Packard They make printers and all of their printers that I've ever seen in a store support Linux because I pick up the box I look on the back and you know, it says you know supports Windows Mac and Linux You'll find you know like the Windows logo you'll find the little tux logo on it as well That's so cool to go to a store and see products by a big company that actually support Linux out of the box And because Hewlett Packard does that I buy HP products all the time not just printers where it's a big deal but you know things that normally you don't have to worry about drivers for like a USB external drives or USB CD-ROM drives DVD drives You know that stuff you never have to worry about all that stuff plugs in and works just fine Doesn't matter who makes it what brand all of that stuff works on Linux But I still purposely go and buy HP where I can because they support Linux, right? And that's what I want you guys to start doing start supporting the companies that support us Some of the other things that are problems I mentioned RGB devices because I've gotten people asking me about these RGB You know these keyboards and mouse that have you know the fancy lighting and everything because they're geared toward gamers Right they market these things to gamers now this RGB lighting stuff doesn't really serve a function. It's nice It's pretty but it doesn't really make a keyboard or a mouse actually do anything special, right? but the problem is they market this stuff to to gamers and You know all the gaming really I mean gamers use Windows That's still kind of the truth is if you're a hardcore PC gamer you're running Windows So typically these devices only have Windows drivers now keyboard and mouse just the standard functionality of those devices You know using a keyboard to type you don't have to worry about that You can go buy a RGB keyboard and plug it into your Linux machine and it will function as a keyboard You're never gonna get the lighting to work though. So unfortunately as one of those things you have to be really careful I would just say you know 95% of the time when you buy a RGB device You're not gonna get those lights to work the way because again There's drivers run that stuff and drivers are usually needed to flash the firmware and change the settings We want to change the colors or how the lights are displayed and things like that all that stuff Probably written to for Windows only it's not written typically even for Mac definitely not for Linux So I don't want to be a Debbie downer as far as you know telling you guys that like these RGB devices that you're just wasting your Time on Linux don't buy them. But honestly, yeah, I suggest just don't even try and to buy those devices If you already have them because you had them on Windows just know Yeah, they're probably not gonna work on Linux another thing people sometimes ask me about is capture devices So video capture cards. This is problematic on Linux because many capture devices Especially the external ones, you know the ones you plug in via USB Typically some of those things require drivers. They require drivers and many of these companies Don't make Linux drivers for those capture devices So when I make my videos and in the office that I have to capture cards that I use because I know they work on Linux One of them is a Elgato Cam link the Elgato Cam link is just a USB plug-and-play device It's a you it looks like a really oversized USB stick you plug it into the computer in a USB 3 slot and on the back of that It has a HDMI Output as well. So you can plug in a HDMI cable to capture your camera. So that's what I use is the Elgato Cam link I also have a Magewell capture card a Magewell I forget the exact name of it But Magewell is a company that actively supports links if you look at any of the Magewell products They support Linux. They're one of the only companies that's really out there making capture cards and capture devices That I can say pretty much anything you buy from them will work on Linux. Everybody else is iffy even Elgato even though the Cam link works on Linux many of their other capture cards Most of them require drivers. They only have Windows drivers. So again I like to buy Magewell when I can because they support Linux I like supporting the companies that support us. Anyway, this is just a random not like a backyard boomer vlog Although today, I'm not in my backyard. I'm actually walking around kind of in the woods here get this Buy you behind me. There's actually alligators Actually saw a rather large alligator swimming out there earlier I should have got that on camera But it's one of those things guys, you know, it's it's different when you come to Linux You do have to have a different kind of mentality and again Just check on the things that you buy as far as compatibility It's really easy to do a quick Google search for whatever you're buying if you're buying some kind of capture card or RGB keyboard or something Put the name of that in Google and add the word Linux to it And you'll find out really quickly if anybody on Linux is actually being able to run that thing If you don't get any kind of search results return, I would say avoid buying that product It probably means it's just not gonna work for you. Anyway guys peace