Re: Certification of Hardware for Debian on a big scale
Hi,
YOUR BEST BET, and that of the interested company, is to read the linux
hardware compatibility howto AND perhaps hire someone who knows how to
compile the linux kernel.
The whole idea behind Debian, GNU and Linux as well as other free software is:
You have the source. You can create your own hardware drivers. You can fix
any problems.
I think it might be a duplication of information already available to
those who know how to locate and gather information.
Having said that, it might be useful to have some kind of hardware
statement as it applies specifically to debian. I would -not- want any
statement made by anyone who would want to do that to be binding on
debian. Things change too quickly. They should be allowed to.
Perhaps, however, the people of Progeny might be of assistance in the
way of mediating this matter. They want to keep Debian free software
while improving its commercial viability.
> Date: Thu, 03 Aug 2000 21:00:21 +0200
> To: Debian-devel@lists.debian.org
> From: Andreas Schuldei <schuldei@uni-bremen.de>
> Subject: Certification of Hardware for Debian on a big scale
>
> A huge german and internationonal company would like to use Debian as its
> Operating system of choice. Their only problem is that no big Company is
> selling Hardware which is certified for Debian.
What do they want, a -cough- guarantee?? Aren't all guarantees specifically
disclaimed? They should try it and see for themselves, subscribe to the
linux-kernel and any existing linux-hardware lists and -read-.
The software is free and freed. They can do what they want for any purpose.
they're not going to be paying millions of dollars to one company in order
to ensure it will run forever. The way you do that is hire people who know
the answers, and KEEP THEM HAPPY.
> Thats why I asked some people i know working for major computervendors about
> certification of Hardware for Debian.
>
> These people came back to me and wanted to know more details and and whether
> other companys (biger ones) were interested in certifed Hardware for Debian.
> They would like to know
> * names of contact-persons in companys intersted and
> * numbers of installations.
In my opinion, debian probably has enough trouble with distributing
free (and not-so-free, currently) software. Speaking as myself with my
debian maint hat on, I wouldn't want to distribute info having any
kind of personal nature without an absolute legal disclaimer, and I
therefore feel it's far from worth the effort, especially looking at
me doing it myself.
People should (try to) run any OS and any software they want. They should
also do any necessary research, or any they feel necessary to make their
decision. WRT free software, it's that simple.
> Could we collect names and companies and computer-vendors? Is there someone
> working on this? Could we get in touch?
As noted above, maybe you could talk to Progeny. John Goerzen is one person
I'm aware of who is part of them, maybe John could step in here and offer
you some contact info.
-Jim
---
Jim Lynch Finger for pgp key
as Laney College CIS admin: jim@laney.edu http://www.laney.edu/~jim/
as Debian developer: jwl@debian.org http://www.debian.org/~jwl/
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