On 8 November 2017 at 17:44, stan <stanl-fedorauser@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
--
On Tue, 7 Nov 2017 16:09:07 -0800
Rick Stevens <ricks@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Specs (open or not) often have little to do with it. It's more trying
> to figure out how the bloody hardware works. If you don't know which
> bits to fiddle on the chip, you may never get the speeds the thing
> supposedly advertises. Most Windows drivers are produced with the
> assistance of the manufacturer of the hardware because M$ funds it.
> On the flip side, I'd bet the majority of Linux drivers are reversed
> engineered and in some cases, the manufacturers actively try to
> hinder development (Texas Instruments was notorious for this 8-10
> years ago).
I interpret this as meaning that the wireless standard isn't really
*standard*. That is, that there can be extras above and beyond the
standard that allow a manufacturer to enhance their offering with their
own driver, yet allow generic drivers to work with their device at
reduced throughput. Would that be a correct interpretation?
Not really. As Rick notes, "standards" leave a lot of room for
different quality of the implementation. In practice, there will
be some maximum thruput that can be achieved following the
standard under ideal conditions Vendors of consumer gear use
the cheapest possible hardware, so need well designed and
implemented drivers to approach the maximum thruput.
Big vendors like Dell, HP, Lenovo won't use hardware that doesn't
have good drivers for Windows. Linux drivers often build on earlier
drivers for older hardware, with the priority on correct operation
over thruput, so it should be no surprise that some Linux drivers
don't have the thruput you get running the same hardware with
Windows.
What really matters is how well a system works in practice.
I've had many years of experience running I/O intensive linux apps
on older Windows "enterprise class" desktops and laptops from
major vendors. Some lower spec systems had a good linux network
stack and outperformed newer, higher spec kit. This probably reflects
the benefits of tweaks to the linux drivers over time, or, put
another way -- lack of maturity for linux drivers on recently
introduced hardware. The differences are generally greater for wifi
than ethernet.
George N. White III <aa056@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia
Head of St. Margarets Bay, Nova Scotia
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