[MPMoriarty]

I am a recent switcher.

Recently bought a new iBook G4 with Mac OS X.3 and am loving it everyday. I never had this much fun with a computer in all the 10 years I have been messing with computers using Windows.

But here's a question a PC friend of mine asked me lately and I didn't really know how to answer it.

One of the great benefits advertised by Mac OS X by Apple is how "everything just works" via true plug and play support.

So I am guessing that this means that all you have to do is plug in a device and it is supposed to work?

Does this mean every device or certain ones like digital cameras, external hard drives, etc.

But I bought a new printer with my iBook and it required me to install the drivers before it would work properly.

My printer works great now that the drivers for it are installed, but I was just curious as to what does "true plug and play" mean?

Mike

[gorickey]

OS X comes with a slew of built-in drivers...digital cameras/printers/scanners, etc. etc. will work "just by plugging in" pending the drivers are included with OS X (not every single company and all their drivers are included for obvious reasons, but ALOT of the well known ones are)...

With that said, new products come out daily and obviously the drivers for the new equipment isn't going to be in OS X since it came out before the new equipment, so a simple install and you are set....

Also, "true" plug and play means you can plug it in and use the equipment immediately...no restart...this did NOT used to be the case back in the day where you had to restart basically anytime you plugged something in....

Hope that helps a little bit!

[Brass]

It's not that different to Windows, in what it is supposed to do. It is just more reliable in achieving it.

Plug and Play really can only work for devices for which the drivers are already bundled with the OS. Obviously not every device has its drivers bundled with the OS. Especially if the device is as new or newer than the OS. But also if the device was not in common use at the time the OS was released.

[MPMoriarty]

Ah...

I see now.

Thank you for your fast replys.

Mike

[ginoledesma]

Well, in my experience, Mac plug-and-play becomes "genuine plug-and-play" when the device works perfectly for the Mac. For example, several Canon, Kodak, and Sony cameras work _perfectly_ by just plugging them into the Mac's USB port. iPhoto or some other app will launch automatically and ask if you want the photos imported. Just like that. Same with my printer (HP Deskjet 895Cxi and a slew of other printers I've used). Once I plugged it in, the Mac took care of the detection/installation/configuration. Granted, I always try to install the manufacturer-specific drivers as they tend to provide more features. The same goes for my Bluetooth adapter. I just plugged in my Billionton dongle and the Mac configured Bluetooth just like that. Now on a PC, even on WinXP, I've had to download the drivers and set it up.

Needless to say, if a device is "Plug-and-Play" with the Mac, its a very smooth, oftentimes transparent process to the user. Windows to some extent has this also. But there are several devices out there that, while claiming to be PNP, weren't given the "extra effort" of seamlessly playing well with the computer it was designed to be used with.

[CharlesS]

It's something like this:

STEPS TO USE A DIGITAL CAMERA WITH WINDOWS XP:

1. Insert the CD with the camera drivers on it.

2. Go through the installer to install the drivers.

3. Run the installer for the photo software.

4. Plug in the camera.

5. Start up the software.

6. Scratch your head and wonder why it doesn't work.

7. Try it again.

8. Recite various cuss words.

9. Bring the camera to me and ask why it doesn't work.

10. Find out that I don't give a flying **** why it doesn't work in Windows XP.

11. Try it again in the PC.

12. Get mad.

13. Call tech support.

14. Struggle with the techs in India that don't know how to speak English.

15. Try something the tech says, which doesn't work.

16. Give up.

STEPS TO USE A DIGITAL CAMERA ON MAC OS X:

1. Give me the damn camera.

2. I plug in the camera. iPhoto opens instantly.

3. I click the Import button and get your photos.

4. I burn the photos to a CD-R and hand it to you. Problem solved.

[mitchell_pgh]

I didn't know about how easy a Mac was until I took my Canon camera over to my Windows XP friends house...

Drivers? Don't you just plug it in?

It seriously took a very long time, and ultimately didn't work.

Then I took my NEW camera to my 6+ year old Performa 6400 (with a USB add on card), and it recognized it...

Very strange.

[Millennium]

The other thing to note is that Apple has always published fairly strict standards concerning the basic functions of many devices, from mice to video cards to pretty much everything in between. Drivers for these standards have been included in the OS since the earliest days. Anything which conforms to these standards will work without any additional drivers, though not all the features of the device will necessarily be enabled. This is what "true plug and play" meant in the early days of the Mac OS.

For many devices, this still holds. Most mice follow the standards, simply because there isn't much else out there, so there's no real harm in it. The same is true for keyboards (FUN FACT: The Windows and Command keys found on many keyboards can be used interchangeably). Most Mac-specific video cards can at least boot the OS with no driver, though OpenGL (and Quartz Extreme, if that applies) won't work. And so on, and so forth.

[Lew]

Originally posted by CharlesS:
It's something like this:

STEPS TO USE A DIGITAL CAMERA WITH WINDOWS XP:

1. Insert the CD with the camera drivers on it.

2. Go through the installer to install the drivers.

3. Run the installer for the photo software.

4. Plug in the camera.

5. Start up the software.

6. Scratch your head and wonder why it doesn't work.

7. Try it again.

8. Recite various cuss words.

9. Bring the camera to me and ask why it doesn't work.

10. Find out that I don't give a flying **** why it doesn't work in Windows XP.

11. Try it again in the PC.

12. Get mad.

13. Call tech support.

14. Struggle with the techs in India that don't know how to speak English.

15. Try something the tech says, which doesn't work.

16. Give up.

Funny, my experience was very different to yours…

1: Plug camera into PC

2: Scanner & Camera Wizard starts

3: Select photos to import and location to save files to

4: Import photos

5: Unplug camera

[MountainMac]

Mac OS X "true plug and play" is how Janie Porche saved Christmas!

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Mimizuku no Lew:
Funny, my experience was very different to yours…

1: Plug camera into PC

2: Scanner & Camera Wizard starts

3: Select photos to import and location to save files to

4: Import photos

5: Unplug camera

Happened not once, but twice, with two different cameras in a certain relative's PC. So obviously it doesn't work like that every time...

[wataru]

Originally posted by Mimizuku no Lew:
Funny, my experience was very different to yours…

1: Plug camera into PC

2: Scanner & Camera Wizard starts

3: Select photos to import and location to save files to

4: Import photos

5: Unplug camera

I hate to have to quote the Canadian, but...

Just because it works for you doesn't mean it works for me (or someone else)!

[Gavin]

The difference is less dramatic now than in the past.

Plug and Play in the Mac side of things has always been a concept rather than a specific technology. It's really just the idea that your stuff should work without fiddling with it. Apple has always done a great job of having the computer able to see new hardware. So, you usually had to install the driver and restart but that was it.

Apple's plug and play in part depended on good connection systems like SCSI for printers and hard drives and ADB for keyboards, etc. These both have some sort of automatic stuff to deal with devices built into the spec so they work well but were more expensive. Basically the system knew what was hooked up and could try to talk to it.

PC's used things like serial and isa which sucked but were cheap. You had to set things up manually. In some cases you had to open the computer or the new printer or whatever and flip some dip switches then enter the right number into the system set up. You had to know or guess which 'interrupt' the device was on.

Hooking up new hardware on a windows system was a pain in the butt.
First you'd hook all the cables up and restart. Then you'd change some system settings so the system would recognize the new hardware. Then you'd restart. Then you'd install the driver software. Then you'd restart. This time the system should see the device and it would load the driver and you could use it.

If you were lucky the 12 page setup manual wasn't a bad translation from Japanese.
Most people did this stuff while on the phone with tech support.

Around the time of windows '95, MS along with computer and hardware manufactures came up with a technology that they called 'Plug-N-Play' in an attempt to co-opt the buzz word. It was supposed to be a standard where all the hardware could give itself an id on the bus and the OS could try to set itself up. It made things easier but it was still crap. Half the time you still needed to go into the system and enter numbers into fields to try to get it to recognize the hardware.

The real hero here is USB, which has implemented the good stuff from ADB and SCSI while adding 'hot plugability'. While MS has done a lot of work in getting manufactures to write drivers, USB provides (or requires) common standards from hardware. So now in most cases a thing will work by just plugging it in regardless of the platform.

I still think that the mac is smoother in the way it works. Many times it can work with a device even if it doesn't have a driver or it. It drops back to a generic driver that provides at least some functionality.

XP still has some problems and even when it works right it still pops all kinds of stuff up in your face for you to OK that it out to take care of on its own.

(I'm sure my technical details here are a little fuzzy but really, who cares?)

[freakboy2]

my experience with XP and i think this is why it works easier sometimes than others is that sometimes (it's impossible to find out) the drivers are built into XP. If you install the drivers ahead of time, then the "new hardware has been found" wizard opens up and asks you to find the drivers.. who the fu ck knows where xp puts drivers.. so you have to get them off the cd.

pray you pick the right sjeckrdrives.yux file or else you need to re-do the "new hardware has been found wizard". if you cancel the "new hardware has been found' wizard and you have installed the drivers already, usually it just works. How you would know this is a mystery.

It's not that it doesn't work on XP. it's just that XP hates people. Microsoft hates people. Just try to copy and paste in Excel. WTF?! oh you selected a field in the meantime.. oh your copy is GONE!?

I have both machines - i like them for what they're good for. Macs are just much more friendly. If the driver is in OSX, it just works. No wizard, no BS. On winXP, my experience is that even if it has the driver, it still hassles you about it, without any explanation of whats going on and when the drivers are ALREADY THERE!!!

Plug & play for the mac = easy
plug & play for winxP = hard

its just that simple

[Apfhex]

I just bought a D-Link USB Bluetooth adapter. I plug it in, it works.
I plug my Canon PowerShot S400 in and iPhoto opens, ready to import.
When I got my external firewire Pioneer Superdrive, I plugged it in and started burning.
My Logitech mouse and keyboard worked just fine when I plugged them in, as did my Epson printer. Of course for those 3 devices I had to install drivers to get full functionality (for the printer only because I chose not to install the printer driver package with Panther... almost 300MB of drivers just for one printer? I downloaded the driver online, a few MBs).

My WinXP-using roommate has a Canon USB 2.0 scanner that he installed the drivers for. It doesn't work on his new USB 2.0-enabled computer... but on his old computer he had to reinstall the drivers every time he plugged it in because Windows always thought it was a brand new device and wouldn't let it work without installing the drivers. He had two Gravis gamepads that wouldn't be recognized properly until after a restart. His Zip 100 USB, however, worked fine whenever it was plugged in, as well as any keyboard and mouse.