Re: [tlug] Need purchasing advice for a linux compatible desktop

["Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon" <ronfaxon@example.com>]

Edward Middleton wrote:

> On Wed, 2006-04-12 at 22:48 +0900, Alain Hoang wrote:

> > Help with compatibility questions. That's a good one :-) I guess I'm too 
> > hard-boiled and bitter to expect any of the friendly but mostly clueless 
> > 店員さんs in many of the stores I frequent to be able explain to me if 
> > this MPEG-8 Voodoo Super Duper HDTV with blender remote control has 
> > Linux support for Kernel 2.6.20.patch-patch-patch-branch but I'm glad 
> > someone else is glad to ask. I tend to just buy it and play russian 
> > roulette. Far more fun that way (until it breaks).

> I usually ask because if they are prepared to say yes it probably has
> drivers in the vanilla kernel.  From asking I know that dospara doesn't
> support anything but windows, and user side says it will work with
> Redhat Linux, and when they say that they don't mean what DELL means
> when they say it will work with Redhat Linux.  One thing to note about
> Users Side is that they won't give you more then a years warranty.
> dospara will give you 3 years if you pay extra.  As goes with all
> hardware purchases don't take anything anyone has said for granted,
> confirm everything.

And there's the psychological effect of different bipeds walking into
the store and asking about "Linux".  After a certain amount of this, at
least there will be a comprehension of a group of people (potential
customers) who are not using brand-W, but instead "Linux".  It might be
of little or no use to the first or second wave of people asking, but it
could help the second or third wave.  And there's always the (rare
unfortunately) chance that you'll run into someone who actually knows
Linux in some detail.  It's only happened to me once (at T-Zone), but it
was an impressive experience and I was happy to look at the man and
think "He knows Linux!  He's working in one of these mainly
geared-for-brand-W places and he knows and obviously respects Linux!
There's hope yet!"

Lyle