What is a Software Driver as Fast As Possible
Techquickie
·Techquickie
·2014-05-07
·
965 words · ~4 min read
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Now, I've received a number of complaints that my fastest possible
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episodes haven't been fast enough lately. And to that, I would reply,
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"Well, if you weren't all throwing things at me while I try to film the bloody things, maybe we wouldn't have
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this problem." So, with that 15 seconds of your valuable life wasted, let's get
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right into it. A driver is, as Microsoft defines it, software that allows your
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computer to communicate with hardware or devices. Simple, right? But why do we
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even need that? So, you've got a device. Let's say a sound card. You should be
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able to just plug it in with no drivers and your music player, let's say Win amp
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should generate a digital signal that says, you know, yo, sup dog. I need an E
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flat up in this biz or something. And the sound card should make that noise,
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right? Well, actually, yeah, that's basically how it works. And if there was
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only one sound card in existence, it pretty much could. But there's a
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problem. There are literally thousands of sound devices, and all of them will
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work completely differently from each other. The signal that meant E flat in
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our last example could mean dinosaur onion to another. And for everything to
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work correctly, software makers would need to rewrite their software with
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specialized signaling for your sound card along with every card that ever
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existed and every card that ever will exist. It would be fine if every single
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software developer was the freaking doctor. But this is the real world, not
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my fantasy. So that's what a driver is. It acts as an abstraction layer or
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translator. That way, the makers of your favorite programs only have to interact
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with your hardware in one standardized language and the driver handles the
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rest. So, that sounds relatively simple. Why do drivers cause so many issues?
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Well, there are a ton of variables that exist for the programmers on the driver
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side as well. Aside from our oversimplified Eflat example, your
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hardware is capable of a great deal of amazing stuff. All of which we expect to
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work absolutely perfectly. And even though standards exist, even if they
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were adhered to perfectly, things like other devices and other pieces of
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software can cause conflicts. And on top
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of that, separate drivers need to be maintained for multiple operating
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systems like Linux, OS 10, Windows, and the various flavors of each that exist
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in the wild, each with their own universal language that the driver needs
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to translate to. It leaves plenty of room for one of the variants of a driver
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for a particular piece of hardware to have an imperfection or two and helps me
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at least understand why sometimes a piece of hardware lacks support for the
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OS I'm trying to use it with. Which isn't to say that the lack of an
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official driver always precludes using the hardware on Windows anyway.
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Sometimes if you know what you're doing, you can force install one and it will
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mostly work. Driver files are usually INF files and Vista drivers can
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sometimes be used on Windows 7 and Windows 8 and vice versa. So pick the
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correct version of Windows, that is to say 32-bit or 64-bit, not Pro or
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Ultimate or whatever. Extract the files from the installer and give the manual
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browse feature in Device Manager a crack before you totally throw up your hands
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and give up. This trick has saved my bacon with wireless network adapters and
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other things a handful of times. Speaking of saving my bacon, this is
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from Dollar Shave Club and it contains their wonderful smelling shave butter.
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And the only thing that could be manlier about it would be if it smelled like
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bacon. This majestic six blade razor, also from Dollar Shave Club, on the
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other hand, couldn't be more manly if it smelled like bacon, was covered in back
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hair, and belched the pledge of allegiance every morning before a breakfast made of bacon. Dollar Shave
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Club saves you time and saves you money by delivering wicked highquality razors
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and other bathroom supplies directly to your door once per month. So you can be
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shaving with a fresh blade every week without the hassle of running to the
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store. That way if the guy selling you the razor drops fbombs all over the
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place, brandishes a machete as he packages it, and then rocks out with a
3:57
leaf blower for some reason, he is safely on the other side of the country
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for the Americans. Or if you're in Canada, I guess it would be the other side of the continent. And if you're in
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Australia, the other side of the world.
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And if you're anywhere else, then I'm sorry. There's nothing I can do for you
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right now. But for anyone in those three countries, visit
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dollarshaveclub.com/Linus to learn more and sign up now. Oh, and they also have
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Man, do I have to talk about this? Please don't make me talk about
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this. Okay. They also have peppermint scented
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butt wipes for men. Maybe if I used these instead of normal butt wipes, I
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wouldn't stink. And the human interaction made possible by my non-stinkiness would give me the
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confidence to tell you no. Again, that's
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dollarshaveclub.com/Linus. Thanks for watching, guys. Like the video if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it,
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share it if you like machetes, and as always, don't forget to subscribe to
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Techquickie for more fastest possible episodes just like this one.