- Family member has 720p webcam
- Family member buys shiny new 1080p webcam
- Family member plugs in shiny new webcam and gives me a videocall to test it
- New camera works flawlessly. I get to keep the old 720p cam. Yippee!!
…BUT THEN
- Family member goes to the website listed on camera’s packaging and clicks the big blue download button
- download button installs custom usb driver and companion app
- companion app has twenty quadrillion toggles and dials spread across fifty billion tabs and sub menus. Family member spends all evening twiddling with it.
- No matter what, the image looks like crap. Too bright, but not enough contrast. Worse than it did originally.
- next day family member asks for his old 720p webcam back, I get to keep the 1080p webcam
I’m happy with my new webcam so I’m not complaining, but why do people do this?? Why do manufacturers make these shitty custom driver? The whole point of USB is to be plug-and-play without any custom software.
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And I hate how windows did everything it could to enable that shit, too. Like I’ve had devices (specifically wireless headphones and mice) that worked fine when plugged in, and then suddenly some installer pops up by the company that made the device because windows is all too happy to automatically run shit when you plug a device in. I hope there’s at least some kind of authentication back end where it recognizes a device ID and grabs the installer like that, but I suspect that it just uses a standardized way to grab an url and just runs whatever is on the other side of that.
Should have switched autorun anything to default off after the Sony rootkits over twenty fucking years ago. It should have never even been a thing in the first place, since viruses on floppies existed before CDs (where autorun first showed up) even existed.
Pretty sure that that goes through windows update and requires an EV cert and a conversation with Microsoft not just passing a URL
Is this some Windows meme I’m too Linux to understand?
Broadcom, Brother, Creative, Radeon, NVIDIA… If anything, you’re not Linux enough to understand.
Not mentioned:
- The manufacturer-provided “companion app” also installs spyware and adware.
And that’s the real reason they do it. They lure unsuspecting users in with promises of enhanced functionality, but it’s all a ploy to get their data.
That part I could have guessed, but why manufacturer driver is worse than generic… wait, for it to be better it has to be coded better. Mystery solved, I guess
Comes with an EULA longer than Ron Jeremy and twice as invasive
I am stealing that line! Clever!
At this point, making the longest EULA is a competition. Realistically, no one sane would try to read a EULA from such companies.
The longer it is, the less likely the user is to actually read it and object to it.
Most of it likely isn’t even legally binding. But who has the time, energy, and capitol to hire a lawyer to challenge it?
I had the exact opposite issue a few days ago, my phone wasn’t recognized in fastboot mode bc I had to install xiaomi’s custom driver, but windows wouldn’t let me because "[xiaomi driver] is not a valid driver for [unrecognized device] " 🤦
Fastboot/ADB is a nightmare on Windows. I honestly don’t understand how they haven’t figured this shit out yet.
Oh god, I set up a print server at work, it’s been a minute since I managed printers, and somehow I became convinced that HP’s Smart Universal Driver would work for all the HP printers.
Well, first off, if you set up a print server, Microsoft automatically implements the setting, “don’t download drivers from server, use Microsoft generic Point & Print drivers,” which don’t work at ALL.
So I undeploy all the printers and redeploy them with the correct setting - well that Microsoft drivers is still installed on all PCs and they want to use it by default. So lots of individual workstation fixing.
And then the HP driver fails, directing every HP printer to use Tray 1 (bypass) by default, not the drawer full of paper like it would normally.
So I’m 3 months into this job at this point, and everyone thinks I’m a moron.
Good times.
I think people can understand printers being little shits
To be fair both HP and their drivers are pieces of shit.
It fucks me off to no end that 30+ years after the boom in personal computing, there’s been effectively ZERO progress on the usability/stability of printers.
Recently became the “printer guy” at work as well. Endless, daily tomfuckery. There is no fucking reason for there to be a “printer guy” in 2025.
Check out https://www.crowdsupply.com/open-tools/open-printer
I can’t wait for it to be released.
I fear that it will get bought and crushed before it can generate any useful change.I will not stand for this CUPS/IPP (internet printing protocol) erasure!
Most recent printers have supported internet printing protocol for years, which is web based and explicitly does not require printers. This is what CUPS has also moved towards.
macOS and Linux have had built in support for CUPS drivers/printers for decades, so it’s really just a Windows problem, who insist on their own Microsoft print servers.
The printer side of things is pretty atrocious.
I setup dual boot on my dad’s computer, and getting the printer working and shared on the network was easier in Linux than in Windows. I gave up on Windows and just told him to boot into Linux if they need to print anything lol.
I’m kind of in charge of printers at work. There’s this annoying bug in M$ Office where sometimes their dumb apps override default printer choice and there doesn’t seem to be any sane fix out there. I keep getting a few annoyed admin people complain about this, and I’m like wtf am I supposedtl to do here??, I’m not an M$ dev. God, I hate working with M$ products.
At this point I have completely given up on printer drivers. I just put files on a usb stick and plug it into the printer to print. Printer doesn’t have that functionality? Oh well, it’s as good as broken to me. Biking to the local library will take less time and kill less nerve cells than troubleshooting that piece of crap. I can only pray for people like you who have to work with this mess on the daily.
For manufacturers: some other people have other needs e.g. one of the twenty quadrillion toggles. Not that hard to understand.
USB isn’t plug’n’play for a huge range of devices especially on windows and it never was.
It literally did work as plug and play the way op described it. The app screwing everything up and adding tons of options for people who need simple is the problem.
It still worked in the end and yes UVC cameras often ‘work’ without any additional configuration. Not everyone requires simple.
You can usually get yer good ol’ fashioned generic driver back with https://zadig.akeo.ie/
Only manufacturer driver I install is Logitech’s software for their solar keyboard, though it’s not needed. Only driver you really have to install is Logitech’s “shared dongle” tech, forget what it’s called.
This might sound like proselytism, but on linux (any flavor :D) there’s a utility to configure/pair devices with Logitech’s unify dongles, which also provide battery info when available. It’s nice.
…and now that I looked at the newer versions, it actually manage a lot of other logitech stuff beyond the usb dongles. Double nice. It’s called solaar.
Logitech is probably one of the only companies making good tools for their devices
It’s also needed for their HOTAS line, but considering it has sliders, toggles, buttons and yaw, I kind of understand why. It also allows you to bind sliders to keys and such (eg, binding a slider to landing gear)
Either Logitech Options or G Hub, I’m assuming?
“Unify” was the product line I was forgetting.
Is this Green Text in the wild?
