This
section is designed to help you through the special minefields.
Software-Based Modems
Most computer peripherals handle whatever task they are built for by themselves; all
that??™s needed is a device driver that integrates with the operating system. Tell an application
you want to print the file on your screen, the application tells the OS, which tells the
driver, which tells the printer. Done!
An exception to this rule exists, and you may never realize it until you install Linux on
their computers. Suddenly the modem doesn??™t work anymore, and you can??™t access the
Internet. Welcome to the world of Winmodems! Many popular dialup modem models,
both the internal and the external varieties, work as you would expect. Driver support for
modems is excellent under Linux. Some modems, though, move much of the functioning
to software??”software designed for Microsoft Windows.
The argument for this setup is that it is easier and cheaper to update software than hardware,
but making hardware functioning dependent on having a specific operating system
seems difficult, at best.
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