A question came up at the last eastside meeting on how to tell if the
hardware in the box will work with Linux.  Perhaps you're looking at a
new computer at Best Buy and want to know which model will work best
with Linux.

Since manufacturers often put different components in computers labeled
with the same model number, you'll need x-ray eyes to find out what
really is in that new computer you are considering.

Here's help.

In addition to sources like http://www.linux-laptop.net and
http://tuxmobil.org for laptops, the gNewSense Wiki
(http://wiki.gnewsense.org) points to two other useful resources.

The first is http://vendorwatch.org which rates the Linux "friendliness"
of vendors.  So if you are looking for a network card you can see that
Realtek, for example, is very Linux friendly where 3Com is less so.

The Debian GNU/Linux device driver check page
(http://kmuto.jp/debian/hcl/) is a great way to what chipsets are
inside.  The driver check page takes the output of 'lspci -n' and
creates a nicely formatted table showing the vendor name, the exact name
of the device, whether it is known to work with Linux and the Linux
driver that is used.

The database only verifies the PCI devices at this time so it won't help
with X drivers, ISA, USB, IEEE1394 or any other devices.

Still stumped?  Ask here on the list or search one of the forums or
Hardware Compatibility List on http://www.linuxquestions.org.

Dennisk