camera not recognised

[das]

Hello Friends

Some of the cameras do behave very well, and some of the cameras do not. 
I got one Olympus FE 230 three weeks back. It worked very easily. I just 
inserted the USB cord, and the OS asked me, 'Import?' I canceled it and 
it showed the camera as a storage device on my Desktop, which I have to 
unmount before unplugging, just like any other USB storage device.

Exactly the same kind of problem happens with printers, or even 
monitors. My desktop monitor Flatron E700S is seven years old, and still 
not recognized by the monitor database, it takes some near one, and then 
I have to adjust the settings.

Is there some kind of HW database meant for Linux users? Where one can 
check before purchasing a piece of HW? It can be distro-specific too, 
like say, one kept for Ubuntu? I am really thinking on purchasing a good 
printer, but, I am quite nervous about it. Once I bought an Epson DMP 
and for some two years it gave a lot of trouble. I had to use some 
customized gs-script to print them. Obviously they gave one CD with 
driver softwares, but you need one MSW to run it. :)

--
das