I ordered a data-logger for a work-related project, Which comes with windows software and need admin priviledge (that I don’t have due to corporate IT policies). So I lost 2h going to the IT department trying to get someone with admin right installing this driver :(
What’s the reason hardware come mostly with Windows driver (rather than Linux) and why do these software/driver need admin privilege for installation where their customer base are professional who often don’t have the right privilege on their PC ? Is there something technically forcing the privilege elevation to install a driver ?
It’s new hardware. It needs to interact with Windows or Linux at a level that gives it hardware access. That requires admin (Windows) or Root (Linux) for software to be installed that has the ability to interact with new hardware that neither Windows nor Linux knows about.
Software talks to the Operating System. The Operating System talks to drivers (small programs that understand the hardware). Drivers talk to hardware. Windows and Linux come bundled with hundreds of drivers. But they don’t come bundled with drivers for everything. That’s why you need to install the driver. If software could access hardware directly as a stand alone program, then anything you click on or run on the internet could also directly access hardware and install viruses, Trojans, spyware, etc.
Software that could run stand alone and directly access hardware is how PC’s running DOS worked.