Now the fun begins. Go back to your PlayOnLinux window and doubleclick the version of Office you want to install. This will begin the installation procedure. How to Install Hardware Drivers on Linux. Windows needs manufacturer provided hardware drivers before your hardware will work. Linux and other operating systems also need hardware drivers before hardware will work but hardware drivers are handled differently on Linux. The good news is that, if a device will work on Linux, itll probably just work out of the box. You may sometimes need to install drivers, but some hardware may just not work at all. How Hardware Drivers Work on Windows. When you install Windows, youll need to install hardware drivers provided by the hardwares manufacturer motherboard chipset drivers, graphics card drivers, Wi Fi drivers, and more. Windows does try to help. Microsoft bundles a lot of these manufacturer provided drivers with Windows, and hosts many of them on Windows Update. When you plug in a new device to your Windows computer and you see the Installing Driver bubble pop up, Windows might be downloading a manufacturer provided driver from Microsoft and installing it on your PC. Microsoft doesnt write these drivers on its own it gets them from the manufacturers and provides them to you after vetting them. If hardware isnt working on Windows, theres usually a driver to make it work. Unless you have an ancient device that only works with older versions of Windows, the manufacturer has done the work of making it work with Windows. Hardware that doesnt work is usually just a quick driver download away from working. How Hardware Drivers Work on Linux. Things are different on Linux. Most of the drivers for hardware on your computer are open source and integrated into Linux itself. These hardware drivers are generally part of the Linux kernel, although bits of graphics drivers are part of Xorg the graphics system, and printer drivers are included with CUPS the print system. That means most of the available hardware drivers are already on your computer, included along with the kernel, graphics server, and print server. These drivers are sometimes developed by hobbyists. But theyre sometimes developed by the hardware manufacturer themselves, who contributes their code directly to the Linux kernel and other projects. In other words, most hardware drivers are included out of the box. You dont have to hunt down manufacturer provided drivers for every bit of hardware on your Linux system and install them. Your Linux system should automatically detect your hardware and use the appropriate hardware drivers. How to Install Proprietary Drivers. Linux-Mint-Installation-8.jpeg' alt='How To Install Bundle Linux Mint' title='How To Install Bundle Linux Mint' />Some manufacturers to provide their own, closed source, proprietary drivers. These are hardware drivers that the manufacturers write and maintain on their own, and their closed source nature means most Linux distributions wont bundle and automatically enable them for you. Clayton Mobile Home Serial Number Search here. This package contains all essential software to use your scanner. Click here for how to install the package. Download version 3. DEB Package for UbuntuDebianMint, 64bit RPM Package for FedoraRedHat. Change-icon-theme-Linux-Mint-1.png' alt='How To Install Bundle Linux Mint' title='How To Install Bundle Linux Mint' />Most commonly, these include the proprietary graphics drivers for both NVIDIA and AMD graphics hardware, which provide more graphics performance for gaming on Linux. There are open source drivers that can get your graphics working, but they dont offer the same level of 3. D gaming performance. Some Wi Fi drivers are also still proprietary, so your wireless hardware may not work until you install them. How you install proprietary drivers depends on your Linux distribution. On Ubuntu and Ubuntu based distributions, theres an Additional Drivers tool. Open the dash, search for Additional Drivers, and launch it. It will detect which proprietary drivers you can install for your hardware and allow you to install them. Linux Mint has a Driver Manager tool that works similarly. Fedora is against proprietary drivers and doesnt make them so easy to install. Every Linux distribution handles it in a different way. How to Install Printer Drivers. You may need to install drivers for printers, however. When you use a printer configuration tool to configure CUPS the Common Unix Printing System, youll be able to choose an appropriate driver for your printer from the database. Generally, this involves finding your printers manufacturer in the list and choosing the model name of the printer. You can also choose to provide a Post. Script Printer Description, or PPD, file. These files are often part of the Windows driver for Post. Script printers, and you may be able to hunt down a PPD file that makes your printer work better. You can provide a PPD file when setting up the printer in your Linux desktops printer configuration tool. Printers can be a headache on Linux, and many may not work properly or at all no matter what you do. Its a good idea to choose printers you know will work with Linux the next time you go printer shopping. How to Make Other Hardware Work. Occasionally, you may need to install proprietary drivers your Linux distribution hasnt provided for you. For example, NVIDIA and AMD both offer driver installer packages you can use. However, you should strive to use proprietary drivers packaged for your Linux distribution theyll work best. In general, if something doesnt work on Linux out of the box and if it doesnt work after installing the proprietary drivers your Linux distribution provides it probably wont work at all. Linux distribution, upgrading to a newer one will get you the latest hardware support and improve things. But, if something isnt working, its likely that you cant make it work simply by installing a hardware driver. Searching for a guide to making a specific piece of hardware work on your specific Linux distribution might help. Such a guide might walk you through finding a manufacturer provided driver and installing it, which will often require terminal commands. Older proprietary drivers may not work on modern Linux distributions that use modern software, so theres no guarantee an old, manufacturer provided driver will work properly. Linux works best when manufacturers contribute their drivers to the kernel as open source software. In general, you shouldnt mess with hardware drivers too much. Thats the vision of Linux the drivers are open source and integrated into the kernel and other pieces of software. You dont have to install them or tweak them the system automatically detects your hardware and uses the appropriate drivers. If youve installed Linux, your hardware should just work either immediately, or at least after you install some easy to install proprietary drivers provided by a tool like the Additional Drivers utility in Ubuntu. If you have to hunt down manufacturer provided proprietary drivers and extended guides for installing them, thats a bad sign. The drivers may not actually work properly with the latest software in your Linux distribution. Image Credit Blek on Flickr.