From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Aug 28 14:16:48 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 7906ABFF for ; Thu, 28 Aug 2014 14:16:48 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-qa0-f52.google.com (mail-qa0-f52.google.com [209.85.216.52]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA (128/128 bits)) (Client CN "smtp.gmail.com", Issuer "Google Internet Authority G2" (verified OK)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 2F6C31B7F for ; Thu, 28 Aug 2014 14:16:47 +0000 (UTC) Received: by mail-qa0-f52.google.com with SMTP id f12so770727qad.11 for ; Thu, 28 Aug 2014 07:16:41 -0700 (PDT) X-Google-DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=1e100.net; s=20130820; h=x-gm-message-state:content-type:mime-version:subject:from :in-reply-to:date:content-transfer-encoding:message-id:references:to; bh=DNIWPpq0mW8CkX1/5xpUvCmQXGvXKtqghxot10G1t4k=; b=GJSuv7P663NFbdr/9ga9QmFvEB8McZxVqt7LWvVs8I6ZBwkPHJBhzswKhXgm0fqpoW XzTk0q3YGPugTA+DXCbDY5Ww+PJnxHjS1nIK443zsGOPdgANBa4+xNYC7mse4Xx3H9si H6hpFWy9QBc2ur+GA8Z/2XzWYUSLoHwK7nugmI/3wXkn9mH0bKYirWYFaVMAuYjLA1VB Y8g534/CPMXv+M0GrB55uVFfxjuuA6KfgGnkZYrtKwmUdf22WlrlSGPio9v/4MitwboD dxVSQB4trOEVIHVVZmnpTb47MccyKBdNMku9th+hZ1OiLPOc2hHsrKGsIKhbM73iYvn5 NApQ== X-Gm-Message-State: ALoCoQmTyW9kR0zOry+dzTYxmylaWACJMv4L1tM708H41tj81UvIicNWBXjN4eULtX9mo4bYrq7m X-Received: by 10.224.21.68 with SMTP id i4mr6804917qab.83.1409235401067; Thu, 28 Aug 2014 07:16:41 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [192.168.2.65] ([96.236.21.80]) by mx.google.com with ESMTPSA id g61sm5741337qge.5.2014.08.28.07.16.40 for (version=TLSv1 cipher=ECDHE-RSA-RC4-SHA bits=128/128); Thu, 28 Aug 2014 07:16:40 -0700 (PDT) Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Mac OS X Mail 7.3 \(1878.6\)) Subject: Hardware that Requires software WAS: TL-WN722N support From: Paul Kraus In-Reply-To: <20140828053323.2c6661e3.freebsd@edvax.de> Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 10:16:39 -0400 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Message-Id: <63EECB4E-2903-4B26-9475-A8E6C6E4B509@kraus-haus.org> References: <53FC60AB.1060805@qeng-ho.org> <1EE2934C-DA78-451F-B86A-93A9C55B9C56@gmail.com> <2ACC59D6-251B-4FF7-A275-C81408D6BB48@gmail.com> <1409070456.4218.7.camel@lenzinote.lenzicasa> <5811EA5F-C819-4D1B-8D39-7C47E46FFF05@gmail.com> <20140827112209.89d0bbdb.freebsd@edvax.de> <244A8655-63FB-46E9-85AB-6E8BC4CF8199@gmail.com> <20140827180004.GA4450@slackbox.erewhon.home> <20140828053323.2c6661e3.freebsd@edvax.de> To: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.1878.6) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 14:16:48 -0000 On Aug 27, 2014, at 23:33, Polytropon wrote: > Yes, those are terrible and years behind technological evolution. > The same applies to "WinModems", a disease that development has > fortunately dealt with. It is helpful to understand the why of something, and explain such, = rather than just condemn it as bad. The move to host based software for things like printers, modems, = scanners, and other various hardware came about because the performance = of the general purpose computer was increasing at least at Moore=92s Law = rate, if not faster. By moving the processing of the raw data into code = the device (printer, scanner, modem, etc.) could use onto the host OS = you got two big advantages: 1. As the host systems got faster so did your device 2. Your device was likely to remain useful for a longer period There is a third advantage, that the device can be less intelligent and = less powerful, making it cheaper. The typical desktop computer today has = lots and lots of spare CPU cycles (and generally speaking, has for at = least a decade). Why not make good use of those resources. I have three scanners in the house that *all* require very custom = software as the processing of the raw scanned data from the image sensor = is happening on the host system and not on the scanner hardware. I have = seen marked improvements in image quality with each update of the = management software. Even older hardware, hardware that the vendor would = no longer be supporting if it were more complex is still on the = supported list. Does it mean that you cannot use this hardware on OSes for which there = is no software support? Absolutely, but that is the case for = *everything*. If you know you need to (or want to) runs a certain OS, = for whatever reasons, then you buy hardware that is supported by that = OS. I am OS agnostic, there is no one single OS that is perfect for = everything. I look at the job I need to do and then choose the software = (application) to do that task, then I pick the OS that lets me run that = software the best. It is not until this point that I start looking at = hardware. But I am an outlier in that I use in both my personal and = professional life a bunch of different OSes for different purposes. Windows Mac OS X FreeBSD Linux=20 SmartOS Personally, I use FreeBSD on servers and not as a desktop, I think there = are better desktop OSes out there. -- Paul Kraus paul@kraus-haus.org