Re: Linux on the desktop - it's come a long way, but is it there yet?

["Seth Gordon" <user=116@nabble.blu.org>]

 Rich Braun wrote: 
> To David, I respond:  Linux has long had a hardware cross-reference list that, 
> I suppose, one could look up every item.  The reality for most of us is that, 
> as experienced users, we have access to lots of different hardware of 
> different vintages that we use to cobble together systems; or as neophyte 
> users, they simply won't be looking up any cross-reference sheet before buying 
> a system. 

Also... 

(a) New models come out so fast that the hardware databases don't always 
keep up.  If I pick up an "XYZ-110" widget and all I see on the hardware 
database is an "XYZ-100", and all the "XYZ-100"s were swept off the 
shelves in the last clearance sale...how lucky do I feel? 

(b) Vendors feel no obligation to change the model number of hardware 
when they change the chipset.  It's not enough to lookup "XYZ-100" in 
the hardware database; you have to look at the fine print on the card 
and see if this is an "XYZ-100 rev. 2" or an "XYZ-100 rev. 3".  And of 
course that fine print might not be on the outside packaging or on the 
EBay listing. 

My assumption at this point is that the vast majority of PC hardware 
*usually* works right out of the box with Linux, but sometimes you need 
to download a proprietary or experimental-branch driver, sometimes you 
need to use google-fu to figure out why, and if you're trying for 
unusual functionality--and at this point, unfortunately, dual-head 
display counts as "unusual functionality"--all bets are off. 

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