Are you having a hard time buying stuff because of compatibility with Linux?

[wersdaluv]

Personally, buying electronics for me is harder now because not everything is supported by Linux. I was thinking of buying a PDA but again, I had to see what works well with Ubunutu. Now I have this printer/scanner, Canon PIXMA MP150, which I still can't find a software to run with so I'm forced to use Windows again.

How about you? What do you do whenever you buy gadgets or select hardware? Do you also seek first for the one which is compatible or do you just buy what you think you need and the compatibility issue will just be tackled after your purchase?

[Titus A Duxass]

I just buy what I want at the right price, if there are any compatibility issues then the stuff goes straight back to the shop.

So far:
3 wireless cards
1 usb bluetooth stick

All returned as non-functioning.

[Lord Illidan]

I've been lucky as so far everything works except a usb webcam which was an impulse purchase and I don't use it anymore..hehe..

However, yes, I'm being careful what to buy, which is a problem as my nearest computer shop usually only buys from the same manufacturer, and the staff don't know what Linux is :(

[xyz]

I just buy what I want at the right price, if there are any compatibility issues then the stuff goes straight back to the shop.

So far:
3 wireless cards
1 usb bluetooth stick

All returned as non-functioning.
Very surprised and GLAD to read this! I wonder where you live if I may ask?
I must go and find out if I could do this here because, if I understood you right, the stuff does work but is not Linux compatible!!

[wersdaluv]

LOL.. He's so lucky. In my place, I don't think there's a shop where I can return electronics that easily

[matthew]

I look for compatible items first. If I'm at a store and the box is ambiguous and I really want something I'll ask the staff to try to find out. If they can't tell me I tell them why I'm not buying it. If they insist it works with Linux I document their response and I ask what the return policy is should I discover they are wrong. So far I've only had to return a very small number of items this way and did so with an explanation as to why. Why go through the hassle? Money talks. If the merchants know people want Linux compatible hardware they start buying and stocking it for sale.

[EdThaSlayer]

I had a graphics card back from the Windows days(ATI), but now that I have found out Linux works a lot better with Nvidia I will buy that. Having Linux does make it harder for me to choose the right hardware and forces me to avoid webcams most of the time.

[PatrickMay16]

It was certainly harder for me to get a wireless card. I was lucky, though; I found one on ebay which the seller listed as compatible with linux. And indeed, it worked out of the box with ubuntu.

[frup]

**** Smith Electronics New Zealand branches are pretty good at linux compatability. I'm in Switzerland right now though and shops like InterDiscount at a glance look terrible. I'm thinking of writing an angry letter to management before i leave infact haha theres so much stuff i wanted to buy :(

[glabouni]

consumers will is driving the commercial world.

Make sure vendors and management know that there are people outhere who want to buy linux compatible stuff. let the word spread out, and don't hesitate to return any non-fully-functioning item and to explain yourself. Writing to management wouldn't hurt either.

always be respectful and calm when doing this. getting angry and throwing names is not going to make the item linux compatible. :mrgreen:

[Klaidas]

Are you having a hard time buying stuff because of compatibility with Linux?
No. I dual boot :D



Make sure vendors and management know that there are people outhere who want to buy linux compatible stuff
Well, considering linux has how much? <1% of desktop marketshare, I guess, the will of Windows is making the rules ;)

[macogw]

I've been lucky as so far everything works except a usb webcam which was an impulse purchase and I don't use it anymore..hehe..

However, yes, I'm being careful what to buy, which is a problem as my nearest computer shop usually only buys from the same manufacturer, and the staff don't know what Linux is :(
Wow, they're stupid. Is it Best Buy? No, wait, they know Linux exists, they're just clueless. Radioshack, huh?

I Googled most parts of my laptop and then checked with a live cd before buying it. As for other stuff, haven't really bought anything new, but Googled an old webcam I found and discovered it would work OOTB (it did). I got a digital picture keychain for Christmas from my brother though, and it's Windows-only. I got the file transfer software to run in Wine, but the drivers couldn't be installed. I'm going to see if my boyfriend will write a driver for it (or better yet, help me write it). If he can't get it working, return it.

[GeneralZod]

Generally, I don't buy hardware anymore unless it has 100% open-source drivers and will work out of the box on an up-to-date distro.

[IYY]

With a bit of research, I don't find it to be all that difficult.

[arnieboy]

Now I have this printer/scanner, Canon PIXMA MP150, which I still can't find a software to run with so I'm forced to use Windows again.
have you tried this howto?
http://home.arcor.de/wittawat/pixma/ubuntu-howto.html

[kevinf311]

It was certainly harder for me to get a wireless card. I was lucky, though; I found one on ebay which the seller listed as compatible with linux. And indeed, it worked out of the box with ubuntu.

I would be very grateful if you could tell me exactly what wireless card you bought. I will be in need of one when I move back to Maryland as the house is not wired for internet.

[rev_b]

I don't know, I didn't buy any special hardware for linux, Ubuntu recognised all that I had already... :)
Wait, I did buy a HP 6940 printer after Ubuntu being my main OS , but then again, you can't go wrong with HP and linux...

[3rdalbum]

I originally only had a Mac, so I've never just blindly bought something and assumed it would work.

Having said that, I did buy my MP3 player and video digitiser even though I hadn't checked if they would run on Linux, and they didn't. I had thought "Oh, I don't mind if I've got to use these on Windows", but now I'm annoyed that the MP3 player is unusable without a reboot.

I also bought an internal DVD burner without checking, but those kinds of things are plug 'n' play anyway.

I always make a point of mentioning "This works on Linux", so the salespeople know that there's at least some kind of demand. The people at **** Smith's in Australia are very knowlegable. Except for the Karrinyup store, every store I've gone to so far has had at least one Linux user! (they keep suggesting distributions that I should use instead of Ubuntu, lol).

Oh, and I don't want to hear any more jokes about Best Buy - the electrical store I work for has now joined a new group under the name Best Buy (no relation to the American one).

[ihatethedekoys]

The Linux Incompatibility List (http://leenooks.com/1)

[Johnsie]

Being a Linux user takes away my freedom to use a lot of things. Until that chnages I'll always need to have Windows on at least one computer in the hosue.

[aysiu]

Honestly, I haven't bought a whole lot recently.

I installed Ubuntu on the eMachines computer we bought way before I'd even heard of Ubuntu (in fact, I'm not too sure Ubuntu existed at all at the time). I also installed it on our even older eMachines computer we bought in 2001--years before I even knew Linux had a desktop.

Recently, I tried installing Ubuntu on an old Dell laptop my wife and I bought even before our most recent eMachines (I think we bought it in 2003--not sure). I eventually got it installed, but trying to figure out wireless and suspend was making my head hurt. So I'm actually using XP on it now. I'll probably give Ubuntu another go on the Dell once Feisty comes out.

Like a lot of frustrated users, I don't like futzing around to get something to work. On desktops, I've just had pretty good luck. I didn't buy hardware specifically with Ubuntu on mind. Ubuntu recognized everything and the things it didn't recognize fully were easy fixes (a couple lines added t my /etc/X11/xorg.conf file for optimal screen resolution, for example). The Dell has been another story, so sticking with XP on that for now.

[Titus A Duxass]

[QUOTE]Very surprised and GLAD to read this! I wonder where you live if I may ask?QUOTE] - I live in Germany and use MediaMarkt for most of my hardware purchases. I must confess that I don't always tell them about linux.

[atihimself]

I've been tring to find a drawing pad what works under linux, sadly most shop assistants are unfamiliar with linux, so, now i just take my lap top with me and check the compatibility at the store, it's easier, no need to fight with them if you want to return something.

[xyz]

[QUOTE]Very surprised and GLAD to read this! I wonder where you live if I may ask?QUOTE] - I live in Germany and use MediaMarkt for most of my hardware purchases. I must confess that I don't always tell them about linux.
Well MediaMarkt is also the cheapest store around where I live...but I'm not sure I understood you right; please tell me if I'm wrong; this is what I understood from your 1st post:

You walk into MediaMarkt, buy, for instance, a sound card, go home with it and if it turns out to be Linux incompatible, you can take it back to the store, get your money back and choose another sound card to try on your Linux box?

Paradise?

[spockrock]

I would love to get an xfi but alas no drivers yet, also creative has said they would release alsa drivers for linux some time.......lets see how that turns out.....

[Titus A Duxass]

You walk into MediaMarkt, buy, for instance, a sound card, go home with it and if it turns out to be Linux incompatible, you can take it back to the store, get your money back and choose another sound card to try on your Linux box? - That about sums it up!

If it does not work I go back to MediaMarkt who have a nice little returns/service office round the back. In this office they can test things like TVs, Radios, Lap-Tops and probably complete PCs. But they cannot test indivdual parts like wireless cards. So I inform them in my best German (which is not good) that the item simply does not function with my Rechner.

So far I have encountered no problems with this approach. It also helps that the staff are normally 17 year old pimply faced beings with an IQ one above the ambient.

[xyz]

-

with an IQ one above the ambient.
Now I recognize MediaMarkt!!lol

I hope MediaMarkt has the same client support around here. I'll have to go and check it out.
Since they seem to hire the same way in Germany as they do here...I'm assuming that client support's the same as well.

Thanks Titus A Duxass for letting me know about this! It'll no doubt come in handy sooner or later.
Good day!

[wersdaluv]

have you tried this howto?
http://home.arcor.de/wittawat/pixma/ubuntu-howto.html

Thank you very much for this one! It's just that, I'm using edgy. Do you know if there is a Canon PIXMA driver available for edgy?

[wersdaluv]

The Linux Incompatibility List (http://leenooks.com/1)

Wow. That's useful! Thanks for the link! :)

[jbayone]

I think to an extent, exclusively using Linux makes buying hardware easier since there is so wide an array to choose from.

[Hendrixski]

It's not a big problem for me. I return stuff that doesn't work, but the stuff I get seems to last longer, because it's not locked in to a proprietary format (those only stick around for a few years then bye bye).

[macogw]

Today in CompUSA I asked about no-OS computers and the guy said they can't do it. So I said "well according to the Windows EULA, since Windows 98 you can return the OS and get $50-100 anyway." And the guy goes "seriously? Why didn't I know that? I hate Windows." He uses Fedora and Xandros, hated Linspire when he used it. We were talking about Vista's resource-hog-ish-ness and I said I had a little old computer that I wanted to load with DSL or Xubuntu, but it's hooked to a Lexmark printer, and they're about as bad with Linux as ATi is. His response was "ATi sucks." I was wandering around looking to see how much a laptop with an AMD Turion64 X2 with a nVidia card would run (for curiosity's sake--my laptop's fine, but those were what I wanted when I bought it....settled for Core Duo and Intel graphics...and they had one there for only $30 more than I bought this one, but the Turion64 X2 was a new-release and hard to find at the time). I definitely know which comp store to go to for a chance at finding a Linux-knowledgeable person. Best Buy's terrible at that. That CompUSA has a few Linux guys...maybe because with the Apple Store in there they're just into all things *nix.

[floflooo]

I would be very grateful if you could tell me exactly what wireless card you bought. I will be in need of one when I move back to Maryland as the house is not wired for internet.
My Dell Trumobile 1300 wireless card (for laptop) would work about 90% right (freezes sometimes). I bought a Intel Pro/Wireless 2915 ABG and have never been more happy about a purchase (wasn't even more than $30 on Ebay). It works flawlessly out of the box with no configuration involved :D. That's my success story and I intend to repeat it for the next hardware I will purchase.
Btw, I think all Intel wireless cards work out of the box (because of the availability of open-source drivers).


As for other stuff, haven't really bought anything new, but Googled an old webcam I found and discovered it would work OOTB (it did).
Which webcam is it?? I'm looking forward to buying another one... because I don't succeed in having my Logitech Quickcam Messenger (version: 046d:08f0) working.
PS: Support apparently coming (http://leenooks.com/Logitech+Quickcam+Messenger) out of the box in kernel 2.6.18 (still in 2.6.17) :-k

It is somewhat harder to buy hardware because of the manufacturer support. But once a 100% hardware is installed, it works probably better and longer than on Windows. The thing is to check online what hardware works before purchasing. For my part, I now know that some brand are just better for a Linux use:
Intel for wireless cards,
Nvidia for video cards (over ATI),
HP (i think) for printer

Do you guys know about other brands/hardware?