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### linusability...again

Dr. Parthasarathy S [drpartha at gmail.com]

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:14:31 +0530

One frequent problem faced by Linux adherents like me is the difficulty of finding hardware which is supported by Linux. Here is some hope for us::

http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Online/News/Open-Source-Hardware-Gets-Defined

Take a look.

partha

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Ben Okopnik [ben at linuxgazette.net]

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:01:54 -0400

On Fri, Jul 16, 2010 at 01:14:31PM +0530, Dr. Parthasarathy S wrote:

    > One frequent problem faced by Linux adherents like me is the
    > difficulty of finding hardware which is supported by Linux. Here is
    > some hope for us::
    >
    > http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Online/News/Open-Source-Hardware-Gets-Defined
    >
    > Take a look.

It'll be interesting to see if it catches on. I see some business aspects that would motivate a vendor to use it, but I also see things that would have the average company aghast at the prospect. Given that intellectual property is one of the traditional "core" investments in the money world, I'm wondering what benefit can be extracted from this (beyond scoring points with the Open Source crowd), and whether that benefit will outweigh the loss of IP. Well... people who are more business-savvy than me will be scrutinizing this and thinking about it. It'll be interesting to see how it plays out.

With regard to finding hardware that's supported by Linux, the answer these days is "most of it." You can find a number of Linux "compatibility lists" on the Web, but for the most part, I find that a modern distro usually "just works". Sure, there's the odd WiFi chipset or the brand-new printer/scanner/fax/copier/floor sweeper/goat milking machine with the ceiling painting attachment[1] - but for the greatest part, it really is plug and play.

Oh, and - since I was just talking about it - I just installed and configured Ubuntu for a fellow sailor, a Dutch guy who crosses the Atlantic regularly. In return, he rebuilt the sole (floor) in my main cabin, which was getting old and a bit too flexy. I'm very happy about the exchange, and he's just ecstatic: he's been struggling with viruses and spyware for ages, and all he ever wants to do is hook up via WiFi, use his GMail account, and talk via Skype. He's also totally shocked by how much faster his system runs now.

I can guarantee he doesn't think of Linux as either "zero cost" or "zero value".

[1] The Linux driver for it isn't done yet, but should be available by next Monday - and it'll be a kernel module by the next release.

    --
    * Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://LinuxGazette.NET *

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