Hardware Support

[John]

Benjamin Edwards wrote:
> http://wiki.ubuntu.com/HardwareSupport is workable at the moment but what happens when there are hundreds of entries.
> 
> I see a good hardware compatibility database being a very important 


This is something several projects need. A commonly-asked question is, 
"What xxx works with Linux?" and its companion, "What does yyy support."

If particular interest to increasing numbers of people at the moment is 
wireless.

A database of wireless cards that work with Linux would be a good thing, 
and it might include stuff such as
Vendor
Manufacturer
Chipset
PCI info for PCI cards
PCMCIA info for pc cards
Driver home pages & download places
Kind of driver (native, wrapper for Windoes driver etc)
Licence
Where to get firmware, original and updates
What kernels have support "already in."
What distroes are known to "just work."
How to distinguish _before purchase_ whether the revision of the card 
works. Many vendors use different chipsets in the same model of card. 
For example, original SMC2802W cards work, revision 2 cards don't. 
Pictures of the box are enough to distinguish between the two.


Another class of site that would be is "start here." Such a site might 
be a little like distrowatch, but oriented instead to compatibility 
lists such as the above suggestion, linux printing, linux modems, linux 
USB, cameras (is there anything more than gphoto?).