"Tested Hardware List" good way to make Linux just as plug-n-play as OS X?

[chris at seberino.org]

On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 05:42:15PM -0700, Tracy Reed wrote:
> There are thousands of possible hardware components people might want
> to try. And they would all have to be revalidated with each new kernel.
>
> And the real problem is that vendors don't release the specs for the
> hardware so decent drivers can be made.

So either:

1. Only add open hardware to the "Tested Hardware List"

or..

2. Only allow 2-3 models of each type of hardware component so that it is
possible to test all combos for all kernel versions.

> > If, on pain of death, you only bought hardware on the applicable Ubuntu, Red
> > Hat or FreeBSD list, wouldn't that kinda-sort-maybe make open source as nice as
> > OS X?
>
> Threatening pain of death doesn't attract people to a software
> platform. And people are used to the Windows way where vendors ship
> crap drivers for their crap hardware so everything "just works" or at
> least appears to for a while.

Everything would be optional of course.  Just like we can't force anyone to
wash their hands after going to the bathroom (pet peeve of mine).

Another idea is to somehow make more Windows drivers work on open source OSes
like ndiswrapper.

> > One of the draws of OS X is that you know stuff just works.  It seems this
> > would go a long way towards duplicating that for open source no?
>
> OS X supports far less hardware and Apple controls it all. Totally
> different ballgame. You can't have FOSS and control all of the hardware.

Apple's game reminds me of my idea of choosing 2-3 brands of mice, keyboards,
USB drives, etc. and testing all permutations.

cs