Hardware Advocacy or Making it easy to do the right thing.

[john levin]

John McCabe-Dansted wrote:
> Most of the hardware advocacy I have seen is of the Big Stick
> approach. However the stick the open source community wields is rather
> small. Perhaps a carrot would be more effective.
> 
> If I go to apple.com, I can click on "Store" and instantly get the
> option to buy a variety hardware known to work on the Mac. On the
> other hand, If I dig around on the Ubuntu website for a while I find
> that Ubuntu has exactly one hardware partner: Sun, who aren't really
> offering to sell any hardware I want.

There are an increasing number of small, local shops selling computers 
with linux - often Ubuntu - pre-installed. See the linux vendor database:
http://lxer.com/module/db/index.php?dbn=14
I would like to see those business get a higher profile on the Ubuntu 
website; like a page to pre-installed Ubuntu boxes, linked from the 
front page.

> 
> Would it be feasible for Ubuntu/Canonical to open a web-store that
> specialises in hardware that "Just works" on Linux/Ubuntu, and sells
> devices with open-source drivers where-ever possible?
> 

I can't speak for Ubuntu/Canonical, but I really doubt it would be 
feasible. It would entail sourcing hardware, setting up distribution 
channels, support systems, and covering the most of the globe with these 
things. Strikes me as a dangerous distraction from the core task: making 
a linux for humans.
I think it is for the likes of Dell to pick up on Ubuntu, and start 
offering it pre-installed.

> While Linux isn't big enough to greatly influence the entire market,
> Ubuntu might have enough buying power to influence some of the more
> minor hardware manufacturers, particularly if working together with
> the other Linux distros. I don't really need open-source drivers to
> all hardware, so long as there is one piece of easily available
> hardware in each class that does what I need and has open-source
> drivers. In any case, the threat "if you don't provide an open source
> driver, I'll buy my card from Ubuntu.com" has much more financial
> power than threatening to pay full price but only use the text mode of
> your video card or whatever.
> 

Yeah, the amount of research I have to do, just to make sure I'm buying 
something that works with linux drives me nuts. A lot of this is the 
fault of the vendors, who change components in devices without making it 
known.

John