feature request - pre installation tool ...

[CookieNinja]

I don't know where best to post this, but I think it's a very good
idea!



It's also something that Microsoft are doing for people thinking of
upgrading to windows vists.



"Microsoft is providing a beta of its Upgrade Advisor tool that will
evaluate whether a PC is ready to run Windows Vista. The application
scans the computer and creates a report of all known system and device
compatibility issues, along with suggestions for resolution."





Why doesn't Ubuntu have something like this ? Perhaps it is something
that distributions could or should work together on. It would allow
people to find out about known issues before they even start to install
a linux distribution and it would only take them 5 mins or less.



Why ? Well, imagine a friend is thinking about trying linux. Instead of
getting them to download or try a liveCD of distribution x, let them
stay in their windows/mac comfort zone and run a windows utility that
tells them how suitable their PC is for linux and where they are going
to have problems. It could even provide them with solutions to print
out and use when they start installing linux. It could also tell them
what they should download and burn to a cd before they boot linux,
which is VERY important when it comes network interfaces and
dialup/adsl modems. Perhaps it could also report back the hardware
configuration to a central store to see what unsupported hardware is
causing people the most problems when they try to change over to
linux.



Anyway ... I want to push this idea as best I can ... so WHERE is the
best place to catch the attention of people who could make this happen
?


-- 
CookieNinja