Re: Alternative OS
>If you want to purchase additional hardware for your computer, eg
>scanner, printer, network card, sound card, etc, any computer shop
>can guarantee it will be compatable, with Microsoft OS and/or Macintosh.
>
>However, when I was looking for a color printer, nobody had heard
>of other operating systems (eg Linux), and I had to purchase
>something at my own risk and hope that it would be compatable. Even though
>compatability lists are often made available, these are very often
>out-of-date and/or inaccurate.
These lists are inclusive not exclusive. So if something is in the list then
it works and will always work. The only problems are in the case of the latest
and greatest new models.
This is changing though, now that most of the big companies offer Linux
pre-loads you can count on it working with their hardware. I expect that when
I need a faster ThinkPad I'll be able to buy one with Red Hat pre-loaded. This
will be really handy as I'll know that the hardware works and I will be able to
use the Red Hat configuration files as samples for setting up Debian.
As for buying on faith. The solution is simple, test the hardware with a
laptop. With peripherals such as printers most shops are happy to turn them on
and let you plug your laptop in for testing (at quiet times anyway). If anyone
wants to buy such hardware in London and needs help in testing Linux
compatibility then they can email me and I'll be happy to meet them at a store
in the central London area to perform such tests on my laptop.
>Sales people often make the assumption "if it doesn't contain drivers
>for your OS" then it is not compatable! I don't want new drivers that I
>probably would have to manually integrate and compile (and hope it works
>OK), I want to use the existing drivers in the Linux kernel, ghostcript,
>whatever.
>
>I do not know any way around this problem though :-(.
Educate them. Tell them that you use Linux and you don't use the Windows
drivers that come with the hardware - but Linux comes with the drivers for most
hardware. Tell them that Linux is the fastest growing server OS and that they
should know and care about whether the products they sell work well with it.
Tell them that major companies such as IBM support Linux and that if they have
a problem with supporting Linux then you'll take your business elsewhere and
recommend that everyone you know does the same thing. Tell them that you don't
run MS software and tell them the reasons (lack of support, low reliability,
high cost, lack of source so you can't fix all the bugs, etc).
This is what I do.
--
I am in London and would like to meet any Linux users here.
I plan to work in London for 6 months and then I might move to some other
place where the pay is good.
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