I've seen a handful of linux device drivers jobs lately.

[xl_cheese]

In my search for a new job I've noticed a handful of companies are looking for software engineers to develop drivers. Could it be a sign of things to come?

Two companies I remember seeing were NVIDIA and LSI logic. There have been others, but I can't recall the name. I'm not a software guy or I'd jump on them.

[ddrichardson]

Much as I like to think Linux is becoming more mainstream, I think that the number or driver developers reflects more on the embedded market than on the desktop. nVidia has been supplying a binary driver for some time, however LSI (a company I'm not familiar with) seems to be much more in the embedded market.

Linux has an uphill struggle against Windows dominance on the desktop - due to many factors, driver support being one of the main ones. However it is an excellent solution right now for embedded devices.

[DoctorMO]

Linux has an uphill struggle against Windows dominance on the desktop - due to many factors, driver support being one of the main ones. However it is an excellent solution right now for embedded devices.

I think your too hard on Linux on the Desktop. not only is Linux now used by millions of people around the world for both work and home desktop productivity; we also have some of the best hardware support out of the box of any operating system.

I'd say that getting hardware manufacturers to support linux with open source drivers is the main problem since our strength has always been in the ability for anyone to maintain the drivers for older devices. what we need is to see the initial investment and information from the OEMs.

Apart from that though we do _very_ well all things considering and it's a testerment to our communities that we have better drivers (quality) than a lot of the originals built for windows.

[ddrichardson]

You misunderstand me, or rather I'm not making myself clear - its not that I don't think Linux is ready for the desktop, which in most cases I do and I don't mean to be hard on the Desktop, I'm just responding that the majority of hardware level interface jobs I've come across are for embedded devices - so perhaps not to get our hopes up!

I don't really understand many peoples desire to convert the entire Windows using world to Linux in any case. Linux does have better driver support out of the box than Windows, but the argument is fairly mute as the majority of Ubuntu's target audience is not building a sytem form scratch and installing rather is installing Ubuntu on top of a preconfigured OEM supplied Windows box.

This will always put us in worse light driver-wise because for that users experience all their hardware "just worked" in Windows and in that respect of course you're absolutely right - we need more manufacturers creating drivers.