I'd like a "100"

[Fabian Rodriguez]

Matthew Nuzum wrote:
> I found this article to be quite inspirational:
> <http://www.venturecake.com/dont_feel_like_screwing_around_to_get_your_laptop_working_with_linux/>
>
> Basically, the author is suggesting a classification of computers,
> referred to as "100s," that completely and flawlessly work out of the
> box [...]
I will give my opinion about laptops, although part of this may apply to 
desktops too.

Based on personal experience and after "playing" with way more laptops 
than I should have, I would say there are new obstacles coming in 
everyday. It used to be (a long time ago)  those obstacles where 
unintentional, originated by uninformed decisions. Nowadays to me it 
seems more like deals between manufacturers and OS vendors (Mac or 
Windows mosly). This results in bundled software, hardware that depends 
on formware or OS-tied drivers to work (Canon, Samsung anyone?) These 
days I find the following to be responsible for that annoying 5% to 15% 
of missing functionality we often put up with in order to have Gnu/Linux 
on a laptop:

- Integrated webcams
- Integrated fingerprint readers
- Bluetooth (*)
- Modems
- Printers,scanners (*) (HPLIP) - often work with less resolution or 
features
- Wireless
- Suspend to RAM

For those marked with an * I often myself why their susbsystems are 
there, but we still have to add supporting applications or remove them 
completely, based on knowledge of actual spec (not on any detection). 
For the other, it's still the old "proprietary, undocumented" dilemma. I 
know Gutsy will make it better for some modems and of course there are 
huge efforts and progress from community efforts, but manufacturers 
still have a long way to go.

The recent Dell deal seems like a step in the right direction although a 
tiny one in my opinion. Try buying a Dell multifunction that works 100% 
with that Dell Ubuntu laptop ? It's actually harder to explain why it's 
not taken care of. Right now prices keep going down and I see many of 
the discounted laptops and hardware have much more unconfigurable 
devices on them (Averatec, Acer, Gateway) than the expensive ones 
(Lenovo, Dell, HP).

One way to leverage the HUGE community we have would be to have the 
hardware database actually produce a useful, public, shared hardware 
database. Because I work 10 feet from Canonical's hardware certification 
lab, I know it's not Canonical's job to organize, fund or otherwise make 
that happen, I feel it's the community job to actually put together a 
tool that will let other know what "just works". Wiki pages are badly 
outdated in that respect and new hardware come out every day that we 
spend hours, days or often WEEKS to make them work (multi-screen setups 
anyone ? "Gray" Macs ? Bluetooth mouse + headset ?). How many of us have 
another extra 2-3 hours to document the notes we take during install, 
cleanup and properly licence the result ? Ah, and make it look like it's 
not 1994 anymore, you know, so we can show it to management :) Mandriva 
almost gets it right, but a few details don't make it all that useful, 
try and see:
http://www.mandriva.com/hardware

One man's opinion, that's all :)

Cheers,

Fabian