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Operating System Specific Discussions => Other Operating Systems => Topic started by: hipigo8462 on February 17, 2026, 01:13:25 PM
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Hey everyone, I’ve been spending some time away from my usual A1200 lately to mess around with some other alternative operating systems. I’ve recently fallen down the rabbit hole of trying to get Haiku (and briefly MorphOS on an old Mac Mini) integrated into my daily workflow just for the fun of it. It’s refreshing to use something that isn't just another flavor of Windows or Linux, but it certainly comes with its own set of "character-building" challenges.
One specific point that has been driving me absolutely crazy is the driver support for modern networking hardware. It’s a bit of a reality check when you realize how much we take for granted in the mainstream world. I recently upgraded my home setup to a high-end mesh system capable of Wireless-3.9GBPS https://serverorbit.com/network-devices/wireless/wireless-3-9gbps, which is amazing for my main workstation and 4K streaming. But as soon as I boot into a niche OS on my experimental rig, I feel like I’m back in the late 90s, hunting through obscure forum threads for a compatible Atheros or Broadcom driver that won't kernel panic on startup.
It’s such a bizarre contrast to have this massive "pipeline" of Wireless-3.9GBPS airwaves surrounding me while I’m struggling just to get a stable ping or a basic DHCP lease because the OS doesn't recognize anything newer than a legacy G-standard card. I’ve reached the point where I’m considering just giving up on internal cards and using a dedicated Ethernet-to-Wi-Fi bridge just to bypass the driver hell.
For those of you running things like Haiku, MorphOS, or even AROS on relatively modern hardware, how are you handling the networking side? Are you still hunting for specific "golden" legacy cards at local swap meets, or have you found a way to make modern high-speed adapters play nice with these alternative kernels?
Do you think we’re reaching a point where modern hardware complexity is making it impossible for hobbyist OS projects to keep up, or am I just looking in the wrong places?
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Yes, the complexity of modern hardware makes it hard to keep up. For example, early wireless cards did a lot of the work in firmware, while modern cards mostly require much more to be done by the driver, including setting up low-level radio registers. There can also be dozens of variants of radio chips used within the same wireless chipset family, which each require different register settings. Additional support is also needed from the OS to configure encryption, negotiate settings with the router etc.
However, I thought Haiku had implemented a compatibility layer to allow easy porting of Linux wireless drivers. But maybe that code is out of date now and hasn't kept pace with changes in the Linux kernel.