The Truth About Linux Hardware Compatibility

“Sad as it is to say, the single best effective HLC (hardware
compatibility lists) that I have seen are those that are not Linux
distribution specific. Compatibility lists provided by the SANE or
HPLIP projects, among others, have shown us that getting the data
collected is not outside of our grasp.

“Instead, the problem seems to stem from the fact that unless we
have users consistently updating their hardware abilities with each
release of any specific distribution upgrade, any sort of
predictability is more less a role of the dice. This might be
enough to get desktop Linux by for now, but clearly as users find
new hardware compatibility successes out on their own, there needs
to be a cohesive means of allowing others to know for sure what
hardware is going to work and what will not.

“Even considering the fantastic resources mentioned above,
including other efforts from The Linux Foundation and distro
specific resources like UbuntuHLC.org, in the end I have found
endless numbers of compatible hardware not highlighted, as no one
bothered to report it. To make matters worse, even when things are
being reported as not working or working, they are often done so by
people who have no idea what they are talking about. Let me give
you an example.”

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