[Qemu-devel] Re: [PATCH 1/1] Make the e1000 the default network adapter for the pc target.

["Bjørn Mork" <bjorn@mork.no>]

Avi Kivity <avi@redhat.com> writes:
> On 08/25/2009 04:23 PM, Lennart Sorensen wrote:
>
>> I use e1000 with win xp, although win xp has no driver at all for the
>> e1000 and requires you to download the intel driver and install that.
>> The intel driver also made win 2003 work before even though the microsoft
>> supplied driver did not work.
>
> Ok.  IMO it's important for networking to work out of the box, so we
> should avoid e1000 as default.

I don't think you can buy a new PC with a NIC supported out of the box
by Windows XP.  That doesn't seem to bother the PC manufacturers...

The e1000 works very well in Windows XP, given that you install the
driver from Intel.  And e1000 is certainly more common and better
supported than ne2k in more *modern* OSes. 

I fully agree with Anthony: 
 "the average user is better served with an e1000 vs ne2k."

But this of course boils down to a discussion about who the average user
is.  Anyone having any statistics on that?

Anyway, most people will know that they may need driver disks when
installing ancient OSes on modern computers.  With QEMU they even have
the option to change the hardware with a flip of a command line.

The ne2k default is misleading.  A common assumption is that developers
know best, and that you need a good reason to change their defaults.
This may trick people into thinking that the ne2k is the best NIC choice
for QEMU. And I think everyone here agrees that it is not anymore.



Bjørn