Many of us, if not most, have had to struggle with finding device drivers that would let us use the brand new bit of hardware that we just brought – that device that will complete our life. We are stricken when we discover that there’s no driver disk and the manufacturer site is down for maintenance.Why do we have to put up with this? Why can’t the industry come up with a standards, say PCI-Friendly, that forces the Manufacturers to add a little flash EPROM to their board that contains drivers for Windows, Mac and Linux, and/or the address from which those drivers can be downloaded by the computer, without making the poor confused user dig out disks or hunt down web sites.Read on for my suggestion. It’s a bit tongue-in-cheek, but I think the basic idea is valid. If it’s not, I’d like someone to explain to me why. Here’s how I think it should work:
- You plug in a new card/printer/USB device
- The computer’s operating system, OS, sees the new device and sends a Friendly Utility Query, or FUQ.
- The new device responds with a Reply to Your Friendly Message or RYFM, which reveals the nature of the device and it’s specific capabilities.
- Now the OS sends a Polite Request for OS specific Driver, or PROD.
- The Device responds by transmitting providing a basic driver and a URL where the OS can download the latest driver or patch.
- The Operating System installs the generic driver, getting things running, and can then download the latest and greatest driver.
Now, I understand this will cost a little money, but Flash RAM is pretty cheap. The hard part will be getting some industry group to put the standard together and get companies to agree to it. Still, isn’t it about time? This idea originally occurred to me years ago. I’m really surprised it hasn’t been done already.
