What is difference between windows drivers and linux drivers? Are they written in the same languages?
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A:
Windows drivers are for Windows and Linux drivers are for Linux? This is probably not the answer you're looking for so you might want to elaborate your question.
[Added] I'm guessing this person isn't going to develop a new driver. This poster probably is a regular user who's trying to download a driver but is confronted with the choice between Windows or Linux drivers. So the correct answer is most probably:
You need the Windows driver.
J W
2009-05-28 08:46:42
While I like your answer, the original author of the question added the language question and programming thing himself, so he likely isn't just a user.
OregonGhost
2009-05-28 09:00:58
You're right. I'll just leave the answer like it is though, maybe some day a regular user stumbles upon it.
J W
2009-05-28 09:09:34
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A:
windows drivers are written for windows OS and linux drivers are written for linux .. apart from that..there is not much difference.. when u write a device driver..u have a top half and bottom half.. the bottom half deals with the hardware..so that part would be almost similar..irrespective of the OS your writing the driver for. but the top half will be entirely different..in windows and linux.
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A:
are they written in same language
As far as I know, NT device drivers are typically written in pure C. That should be mostly true for Linux drivers as well. It's uncommon to write drivers in a higher level language like Delphi or C# or Java for these platforms (there are projects like Singularity, where most of the kernel is written in unsafe C# and the drivers are - strangely enough - written in safe C#).
OregonGhost
2009-05-28 08:53:07
+1
A:
I think conceptually there is not much difference. Code in application programs make calls to the underlying API ( system calls ) and these APIs talk with the drivers that talk with the hardware.
Given that the language of implementation is C/C++ the only difference would be the way in which the drivers interact with the kernel code. This is where you would notice the biggest differences because the Windows API is GUI aware whereas the Linux API ( POSIX ) is not GUI aware.
One other difference however is that Linux drivers can be loaded as modules onto a running kernel without needing a restart.
Hope this helps.
ardsrk
2009-05-28 09:05:20
A:
Linux is not dependent of Unix. Windows is not dependent on dos.
Alessandro Stamatto
2010-07-07 18:07:18