Vista drivers and big companies
I have been running Vista x86 for a while now (since it went RTM). The only problem I am facing is the lack of drivers for certain hardware. Here is the list of devices that won't work or their software won't work for me under Vista x86
- HP Scanjet scanner
- ActiveCard/SmartTrust (not sure why my smartcard won't work, apparently there are problems with driver)
- Microsoft Lifecam
- Panasonic video camera (works, but its bundled software won't work)
- Samsung color laser printer (works with Vista's drivers, but its driver won't)
- Gigabyte motherboard/video card (drivers for Vista are in beta, works with Vista drivers)
Why all the delay? Vista has been RTM for a while now and for a long time in beta. It is true that it isn't selling yet, but hey, why don't have drivers ready by now? They can't say they didn't know Vista is coming.
Seems that the bigger the company is the less flexible it is in providing new drivers. Gigabyte has at least beta drivers which makes it the best of the list, while the worst are HP and SmartTrust - their hardware won't work at all.
On the other, bright, side there is Intel with its Matrix Storage drivers (RAID on their chipset) which were provided almost immediately after Vista came out.