Reaching out to hardware companies

[Jordon Bedwell]

On 10/22/2010 09:23 PM, Anthony Papillion wrote:
> The exceptions to the 'greatness' are: audio, wireless networking, and
> some video (mostly Flash).

Re: http://dell.com/ubuntu
Re: http://event.asus.com/eeepc/comparison/eeepc_comparison.htm
Re: http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer10.html

^ Asus supports Linux < I use Asus/Intel\XFX Hardware w/ Pioneer Media
^ Dell loves Ubuntu now for some reason < I use highend Dell servers
& Flash now provides a native x64 alpha driver for Linux < I use

Dell now provides Linux compatible wireless devices (I recently took my
mums 4 year old AMD Opteron Dell and put Ubuntu 10.10 on it with a
(newer) Cisco wireless card and it worked like a pro,) Asus does to,
so do many other manufacturers.  In the past the chipset used in most
wireless devices was really incompatible with Linux, you will face that
until you get newer hardware that is more aware.  This was the fault of
the chipset and nothing could be done, lots of people tried to build
native drivers, and ultimately it relied on hacks.

> I know the old line about 'it's not Linux's fault, it's the hardware
> vendors' and I understand that. But I'm wondering what kind of concerted
> effort is being made to reach out to those vendors that do not support
> Linux?  I'm sure Canonical is actively working with many vendors but
> could the community do more?

As far as sound, that really depends on the chip. Networking,
it really was, but this has been addressed as of late, as long as you
don't use crappy vendors.  A 4 year old realtek chip inside of that
aforementioned Dell works like a charm.

> I'm considering starting a group with the specific goal of doing
> hardware outreach. We'll interface with companies that don't support
> Linux, we'll lobby them, we'll work with them in whatever capacity they
> need us, and we'll even write the drivers if need be.

How about you promote Linux in general, you are barking up a tree
already barked upon.  Just so you know, Microsoft and pure facts
recently just outed Linux as more popular and wider installed than any
and all Macs (with OS X) combined. Microsoft also admitted that the only
real competition it has is Linux. Vendors are aware of it, and if you
buy newer hardware you will start to see these vendors noticing.  I
don't need to do anything on my computer but turn it on and boot it,
this is a testament to awareness of hardware vendors.

> I'd like to get everyone's opinion on this approach. Is it something
> worthwhile to pursue? What do you think?

No, I think your time is more suited towards promoting Linux rather than
barking up a tree that is being barked upon.  Most of the problems
happens to be with "older" hardware, like you mention, you can only
blame yourself for that, not the vendors because latest generation
hardware tends to be quite compatible.

> Thank,

Good luck on your mission regardless of what I think.