ubuntuforums-unanswered team mailing list archive

[Arnaudus <question78294@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Question #78294 on Ubuntu changed:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/78294

    Status: Open => Answered

Arnaudus proposed the following answer:
Hi,

It depends on the "device". If it is a volume (hard drive, flash drive,
digital camera, mp3 player...), in general, you can quite easily access
the content and modify it. Ideally, the device is detected and the icon
appears on the Desktop, it is trivial to use it.

Other USB devices require some drivers. Modems, printers, webcams, etc.
rarely communicates using a "standard" protocol, and whether or not your
device will work "out of the box" is a bit of a lottery: some
manufacturers provide drivers and support for Linux (great!), others
don't (bad!), and whether or not a driver exists depend on the
popularity of the device and, more generally, if someone competent has
managed to write a proper driver. That means that for rare devices, the
probability to make it work is probably close to 0.

Note that Windows has exactly the same problem. The only difference is
that the manufacturer generally provides a CD with some drivers
(sometimes buggy, often intrusive or security-threatening) for Windows,
but if you occur to have the wrong version of Windows (too old, too
recent...), you'll face exactly the same problem.

-- 
You received this question notification because you are a member of UF
Unanswered Posts Team, which is an answer contact for Ubuntu.