Drivers have a somewhat odd place in the history of computing. They’ve always been something of an issue for anyone who wants to use computers. There was a point where people essentially needed to have a deep level of understanding just to add a new piece of hardware. Drivers have existed since the earliest days of true home computers. However, they were more of a barrier of entry than the helping hand they usually are now.
Back in the day driver installation usually started from a floppy disk. One would boot into a command line and modify batch files with mysterious hardware values. And only then, often after hours of tinkering, would their peripheral start to work. These days drivers usually help more than hinder. When someone buys new hardware they seldom brace themselves for the installation process.
In fact, computers are usually able to handle most steps of driver installation. There’s only one real impediment to the situation. The most complex hardware does often require a little extra tinkering to get the drivers working. This is especially worrisome because one can often find himself confused as to what problems are coming from where. What issues might be coming from … Read the rest