Linux Driver Wiki Opened

Florian Becker writes "A new Wiki with hardware information for newbies and developer has opened. The site can be found at linux-driver.org." The site is designed to collect driver information about as many pieces of Linux-friendly hardware as possible, "like specifications, developer specifications, installation and the actual state for Linux driver and support. The new page reached the 500 contents in just one week." Update: 09/29 16:08 GMT by T : Jeremy of linuxquestions.org writes "Just wanted to point out that LinuxQuestions.org has a user-created Linux Hardware Compatibility List that already has over 1,500 items." Thanks!

Comments

Great Idea

[I_Love_Pocky!]

I just think there should be a similar site that lists hardware that is known to have problems with Linux. It seems just as useful to me.

Re:Great Idea

[BinLadenMyHero]

why a similar site, and not this same site?
it's a wiki..

Re:Great Idea

[I_Love_Pocky!]

I actually think it would be great to have it on this site, but I just wanted to make it clear that I wasn't critizing this site for not having something like that.

What I'd like is...

[Singletoned]

I'd like to know what hardware is recommended by the open source community? Which processor manufacturer supports the community the most? Which video card manufacturer? Which motherboard/sound card/etc?

We must have quite a bit of purchasing power between us, and could probably soon make open source drivers the norm.

Re:What I'd like is...

[MBCook]

I'll take a stab at these questions.

• Processor - Largely irrelevant. Linux has had support for x86-64 from AMD since before the chip was available. Everything on the Intel side is supported.
• Video Card - Both ATI and nVidia cards work. If you use the unofficial open source drivers, things will work, but you don't get 3D (I don't think). Both ATI and nVidia have binary drives, but my understanding is that nVidia's are better (more stable, etc) but they have been out longer so that's to be expected (plus ATI has a bit of a reputation when it comes to drivers, but they've been doing much better in the last few years). I'd go with nVidia because the drivers are supposed to be better. When it comes to things like VIVO or All-In-Wonder cards I don't know, I'm not up to speed. If you don't need 3D, Matrox is supposed to work great (don't know if the drivers are open source, open source from the company, or closed source). I say "don't need 3D" because they really aren't a 3D contender.
• Motherboard/souncard/etc - It's all in the chipset. By and large most everything on motherboards works because the chipsets are pretty well supported (except WiFi, see below). Soundcards I don't know, but the ones built in to chipsets usually work well enough, or I think the Soundblaster Live! series is well supported (if you can get an old SB16 for $10 or something, it's perfect). Network cards aren't usually a problem. Printers work well. The only category of hardware that has been a major problem lately (to the best of my knowledge) is WiFi which is still full of quicksand and boobytraps (in regards to what cards are supported).

Most major hardware is well supported, but check before you buy.

Re:What I'd like is...

[Singletoned]

Thanks, certainly helpful, but I was thinking a bit more on idealogical grounds as well.

Do ATI or nVidia have a particularly good relationship with the OSS community? Or maybe Intel or AMD? Maybe their products both work, but one or the other helps in other ways?

For example Nestle chocolate is probably just as good as other chocolate, but they are an unethical company and so I don't buy their products. Fair Trade coffee is probably slightly worse than some other coffees but they are very ethical (though I don't actually buy Fair Trade coffee as Lavazza is too good).

Re:What I'd like is...

[nusratt]

"Do ATI or nVidia have a particularly good relationship with the OSS community?"

Like night & day.
Nvidia good, ATI bad.

Re:What I'd like is...

[Smallpond]

the smoking gun

Re:What I'd like is...

[MBCook]

I realized that might be what you meant later on. As other posters have pointed out, nVidia does a MUCH better job of supporting Linux than ATI (I didn't realize it was still so bad, but based on that smoking gun link, I guess).

As for processors and such, I like AMD better simply because I think they are currently superior (in price, heat, technology (x86-64), etc). I don't think there is any reason to support one over the other becuase as far as I know they both make about the same effort towards making Linux work. You might also want to "boycott" Intel because of the wireless problems happening (they won't let people use Centrino wireless due to patents or something).

For the rest of the stuff, most of it just works. Chipsets, sound cards, etc. I don't think that there is any real reason to support one company over another due to support issues that I know of. Network cards are all based on one of a few chipset that tend to work great. Soundcards I'd look into for support, but nothing big. IDE and such are the same as network cards, they're all the same.

I guess this post is ending up like my last one. There aren't any major issues out there that I'm aware of (other than the difference between nVidia and ATI). But if you find a piece of hardware and go looking for driveres and such before you buy it, you'll probably turn up those kind of things and find them out in time. That ATI petition is the 6th hit on Google for "ati linux drivers". Just look around, and you should find that kind of info.

Whatever happened with linhardware.org?

[mpol]

The only project that came close to this was linhardware.org, later bought by zdnet and transferred to lhd.zdnet.com. Does anyone know whatever happened to that? I heard it was hacked a few times too many, but I never read anything about it.
In the last period when it was run it seemed flooded with people asking for drivers for Windows XP, which was rather annoying, but for the rest they had a nice infrastructure.

use just 1 site (LQ.org?) to get critical mass

[KWTm]

The Linux Hardware Compatibility List at http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/index.php already contains over 1500 products and comments on their compatibility. It's an automated system where people can submit their own entries.

This is not to say that one is better than the other, but for the sake of the Linux community, I hope that we minimize duplication of effort. It would be a pity to have information split between two sites with neither one being authoritative (or tending toward such).

Having said this, objectively is there any particular reason why one would choose the wiki at linux-driver.org to list hardware compatibility? (No argument that drivers themselves can be discussed at linux-driver.org since linuxquestions.org doesn't cover that.) Is there an advantage to it being a wiki rather than a database of forum posts (which is essentially what the linuquestions.org list is)? Is it, for example, easier to automate the retrieval of information from a wiki if one were to (say) dynamically generate/update a Linux hardware database? If not, then I'd say support the older site (which came into being earlier). But if for whatever reason linux-driver.org became more massive, then we should all make that site the one with critical mass. Not trying to be biased --just put all your stuff in one place, wherever it is.

In any case, I hope there will be heavy linking between the two so that people who go to one can easily go to the other.

Slightly OT: for the same reason of avoiding duplication of effort and achieving critical mass, I hope Linux knowledge can be funneled into the forum at linuxquestions.org as well as their wiki (yes, they have a wiki, just not specifically about drivers).

Re:use just 1 site (LQ.org?) to get critical mass

[DaTakko]

Oh man, thank you. That is not the truth for linux-driver.org, so that news update is stupid and a lie. We have only 500 content, but even more than 1500 products... Wwwwwaaaahhh!!!