"Nagging" the vendors?

[Sunnz]

There has been quite a few threads about hardware support of a modern PC for Linux.


Although the number of Linux users is growing, it still represents a small share of the market for a lot of hardware vendors, so there is no great incentive to provide drivers, code, etc., for Linux. So the more Linux users there are, the more incentive there will be for vendors to provide software, and the more supported hardware there will be.

But, maybe they are not aware of the actual user base of Linux? When you think about it, the Linux user base is quite a lot, for each distro, there is almost always a forum of this size: gentoo, fedora, suse, debian, slackware, etc...

Maybe if we could sent them an e-mail every now and then, eventually they'll get enough pressure and start developing drivers or even releasing their specifications? If say 60% of users of every distro sends them emails regarding to hardware support or what not, that is going to be ALOT.

What do you think? Good/crap idea?

[aarbear26]

sounds like a good idea to me.

I use an HP notebook and have sent several emails to them to give drivers for the card reader. It's the only thing that doesn't work. Well that and hibernate

[.t.]

Good idea. I routinely e-mail vendors when I get hardware that doesn't work. Fortunately, at the moment, all my drivers are fully working and open source.

And, I must check out hibernate...

[Sunnz]

Cool, so people do send e-mails to vendors.

I had once had a winmodem, when I sent them an e-mail they replied to me a website where people write drivers for it; though it was not official, it solves the problem.

So, what are their usually response like? Something along the lines of "Linux is not supported at this moment."? If so, it may be a good idea to ask them "when will it be supported.", and speak in a manner as it is common for people to use Linux such that linux friendly hardware will have an advantage.

[tubasoldier]

Every time I purchase new hardware I send an e-mail to the manufacturer telling them why I chose their product. And everything I buy is supported under linux, I do my homework before I purchase. I also inform them that I would love an open source driver if they do not have one.

The response from the vendors varies. Most of the time they inform me that "Linux is an unsupported configuration" and tell me to install windows.

[cunawarit]

The response from the vendors varies. Most of the time they inform me that "Linux is an unsupported configuration" and tell me to install windows.

I love that :)

“Hello Mr Ford, I have just bought a new Mustang and it won’t start in cold weather”

“Hello dear customer, northern Europe is an unsupported configuration. Please move to Florida.”

What makes them think you are going to change OS just because their one tiny little piece of hardware?

[ade234uk]

I went over this subject with another user the other day. We need one centralised website where we can go to send out standard emails to the major manufacturers asking them to support linux on the particular device you are having problems with.

If we keep emails standardised then the manufacturers can build up a picture of what we need.

Honest device drivers are the only thing Linux is missing at the moment and a few programmes like Adobe photoshop, Dreamweaver that would be great if they craeted native versions.

I cant think of anything else we need.
I would pay real money for software if it was available.

[Sunnz]

I went over this subject with another user the other day. We need one centralised website where we can go to send out standard emails to the major manufacturers asking them to support linux on the particular device you are having problems with.

If we keep emails standardised then the manufacturers can build up a picture of what we need.

Honest device drivers are the only thing Linux is missing at the moment and a few programmes like Adobe photoshop, Dreamweaver that would be great if they craeted native versions.

I cant think of anything else we need.
I would pay real money for software if it was available.
Yes I was thinking something along of these lines too...

However if it is just the same standard e-mail (copy and paste), then it might have a negative effect.

Something along the lines of "templates" may be better...

But yea, if we are up to it, we shall really set-up a centralised website for it... maybe not just for Ubuntu, but Linux community as a whole.

[ade234uk]

No every distro should be included and templates. All a user would have to do is select the template and then fill in the gaps, click send and thats it.

[Sunnz]

Anyone else interested in such web site? If there is enough interest I'll be happy to set up one!!! (Something naggingthevendors.org)

[maniacmusician]

as I said earlier in another thread, i'm way too busy to start work on this, but I think it's a really cool initiative. Why don't you and ade234uk work together on this? it shouldn't be too hard with a two man team. And you'll get more volunteers if the site really hits it off.

go for it.