USB? Plug-in-Play? what's with that?

[mystere79]

I have'nt been paying any attention to USB because I had no USB devices.
Now that I have things like USB digital camara, scanner, mp3 player, mouse, i'm now starting to catch up.
But something bothers me...I thought USB was supposed to be driver free. meaning, i just plug it in and go.
But so far, every USB required me to install some sort of driver.
hmmm this is like when PNP with windows 95, it sounded like I just put it and go, Plug and play? but It never worked without proper driver installation, which makes me think what's up with that? then again i've never used any o/s below wind95 so i don't know what it was like back then.
But I really thought USB was driver free, i thought O/S supposed know what isand when I plug in and let me dance without driver installtion.
Only thing USB does better is that I can plug in-off without restarting computer?
hmmm...

 

[jsbush]

Plug and Play. (Play till you get it working). USB is supposed to be reboot free, meaning no need to reboot when you unplug or replug a device (yeah right).

I hate USB but of course they force us to use it as more and more devices are USB.

I've had nothing but problems setting up my Creative Webcam Go plus USB. But my old digital camera, which is serial, I never had one problem with it.

 

[Dulanic]

It depends on the OS.... Win2K is much better at USB because Win2K can install alot of drivers etc.. on the fly. Hell I installed Office2K and didnt even have to reboot.

 

[damien6]

But there are also these little tidbits: USB is faster than serial/parallel port, scaleable, interchangeable/connectable w/various peripherals w/o out any sole item taking possession of the "bus" itself and so forth. The technology advanced so fast, it really didn't get the chance of industries' full backing (especially in the early days) nor has had that much time to mature (compared to serial/PP) and now w/the newer faster options of interconnect ability available (firewire), it might not get to enjoy too much of the spot lights too much in the future.

You also have to figure in for the fact that not that many OSs had any actual "Plug and Play" supports and MS adaptations of "Plug and Pray" wasn't all that mature in their earlier attempts. Now that MS implementations had some time to mature, we're getting to enjoy some of those features and probably a lot more in the future.

If anything, maybe we should "bit_h" at other OS developers for not leading/lack of availabilities in that arena and industries for the initial delays in supporting new advancements.

"Long live the tyrant!!!"

 

[bacillus]

hmm, never had any problems with my usb devices!

 

[Oyeve]

Only USB problem I had was my USB trackball. PC wouldnt boot if it was connected. Flushing the bios fixed it. But I agree. USB plug and play is crap especially if the device has no external power source. My USB hubs need a power source boost even with simple things like webcams and such. I wonder if firewire is any better.