[Sussex] Some webstats

[John Crowhurst]

> Well, the problem here is that getting peripherals working under linux
> is a  bit "hit and miss".  Buy lucky and you have no problems.  Be a
> little bit  unlucky and you'll spend a fiar bit of time on mailing lists
> and so on  sorting things out.  Be completely unlucky and the damn bit
> of hardware  will never work - generally because it needs some tweaks
> deep in the bowels  of the kernel.

I found this out with my scanner, I have a Umax scanner and looked at the
Hardware-HOWTO to see if it was listed before I bought it, and then it
turns out that the model I bought is not compatible after all!

> What's missing is a good and up to date hardware compatibility guide for
>  all platforms (important for me - some drivers don't work on Macs).
> Then  people will be able to buy with confidence and that will help
> bootstrap the  linux market.

What would be most useful would be the hardware manufacturer to provide
instructions and/or drivers for linux so that you can use their products
more effectively. Its not too hard for the suppliers to do a bit of
homework and see if there are drivers for linux for that piece of
hardware, and advertise appropriately.

>   Iain
>
> ... anyone want a Travan NS20 tape drive (SCSI), one careful owner,
> found  not to work on linux ppc, supposedly OK on windoze.

That reminds me, I must install the SCSI tape drive I bought off ebay and
see if it works at all :P

--
John