[wellylug] DSE & Linux

[Richard Hector]

I hope I'm not commenting on the wrong things here ...

On Mon, Apr 19, 2004 at 06:27:53PM -0700, Wood Brent wrote:
> 
> DSE is pretty well committed (due to new licencing issues with an alternative
> OS) to using Linux & supporting it's use, and will be promoting it as a viable
> alternative. Hopefully WLUG will be able to be involved in this in the Wgtn
> region.
> 
> This stance from a retailer like DSE could have a major impact on the way the
> general public perceive Linux, and it's viability/credibility.
> 
> Any comments?

I like the fact that DSE is doing something about Linux.

However, there are very different levels of support possible.

What I've seen so far is an attempt to gather up some drivers, probably
test them a bit, and bung them on a CD with Openoffice.org, and stick a
penguin on the box.

This, IMHO, leads to disappointment. I have 2 cases in mind:

I bought a Terminator PC for my grandmother. I blew away Mandrake and
installed Debian (because it's what I'm familiar with), and went through
some hassle getting the Intel HaM modem (mentioned in another thread) going
with a custom kernel. That was survivable, though someone with less
knowledge than me would no doubt have had problems, and possibly given
up (as I was tempted to do). However, it appears that this modem won't
work at all with kernel 2.6. That's the sort of thing I was trying to
get away from when I decided to forget about Windows.

The other thing I bought was their PCI 802.11b card - again with the
penguin on the box. It turns out to have binary modules as well. After
struggling to get in working in Debian, I downloaded and installed
Redhat 9.2 (from memory) - the latest version mentioned in the docs on
the CD. Even then, I couldn't get it going - though of course I'm not
that familiar with RedHat. Again, even If I was able to make it work (as
people obviously have), I think I'd be out of luck with a newer kernel.

To me, labelling such hardware as 'Linux compatible' is bogus.

At the very least, I'd like to see fully open source drivers,
preferably with assistance from the hardware manufacturer (rather than
relying on reverse engineering); much better is to pick the hardware for
which the drivers are in the standard kernel tree. That way, I'm pretty
much guaranteed that I can get it going in any distro with any kernel,
now or in the future. Obviously that's not practical for brand new
leading edge stuff; I'm guessing most drivers don't get written before
the hardware is released the way they are for Windows (though that'd be
nice).

But for relatively mature hardware, I feel that DSE must have the buying
power to specify a decent well supported chipset, given that they're
getting stuff branded for them anyway.

Assuming that they can't do that for everything, they could at least
specify what level of support a given item has, ranging from binary
module for a specific kernel through to fully integrated. A simple
unqualified penguin on the box is not enough.

That, IMHO, is what we need when it comes to supporting linux.

Richard

PS: of course this all applies to any other retailer too.