It's 2024. WiFi even works out of the box on Debian now.
> Or Bluetooth?
Getting some random device to connect to Bluetooth is a lottery - on both Windows and Linux. It's a horrible standard. That said, it usually works on both.
> In Linux… ???? Where do you even go?
If we are talking about printers and one of bigger Linux desktop environments, a little red triangle in the notification area usually.
Yes, it will be different to where a Windows user will expect to find it. But given the dance you have to perform between the old control panel, the new settings app, and having to google to find devmgmt.msc I would hope it is different. Windows is no longer has the nice consistent management UI of the XP days. Modern windows is the mess you get after decades of organic growth with very little cleanup. I can just imagine the public derision an open source developer would receive if they delivered something as bad as that.
Unless the vendor ships the laptop with 'nix I guess there is a chance it won't work out of the box. But given it is is running on Apple's M series now, the odds of it not working after a while are very, very low.
As for me, I've only used laptops since 2000 or so (a variety of Dell's and Lenovo's), I've only run Debian on them, and at worst I've had to do is use a kernel from Debian testing.
I think it's safe to say the current version of Linux runs on more laptop and desktop hardware than the current version of Windows now. Windows may run on some bleeding edge hardware Linux doesn't because the laptop manufacturer "made it happen" with specialised drivers, but as a rule manufacturers don't give a rats about older hardware they shipped and Windows has been deliberately breaking compatibility with old hardware, so there is no comparison. Linux runs on everything older, Windows only the latest.
Every instance of a person throwing up their hands in disgust and moving to Windows has been because of that. They had some solid "well worn sock" of a laptop they adored as their daily driver, a Windows update broke it once too many times and they rage quit their Microsoft addiction.
It's 2024. WiFi even works out of the box on Debian now.
> Or Bluetooth?
Getting some random device to connect to Bluetooth is a lottery - on both Windows and Linux. It's a horrible standard. That said, it usually works on both.
> In Linux… ???? Where do you even go?
If we are talking about printers and one of bigger Linux desktop environments, a little red triangle in the notification area usually.
Yes, it will be different to where a Windows user will expect to find it. But given the dance you have to perform between the old control panel, the new settings app, and having to google to find devmgmt.msc I would hope it is different. Windows is no longer has the nice consistent management UI of the XP days. Modern windows is the mess you get after decades of organic growth with very little cleanup. I can just imagine the public derision an open source developer would receive if they delivered something as bad as that.