Re: drivers DB and id/ info registration

[Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net>]

On Wed, 2004-05-26 at 17:18, Adrian 'Dagurashibanipal' von Bidder wrote:
> On Wednesday 26 May 2004 08.54, Javier Fernández-Sanguino Peña wrote:
> > On Wed, May 26, 2004 at 01:38:26PM +1000, Zenaan Harkness wrote:
> > > My biggest itch in our free software world is drivers.
> [...]
> > > Does it make sense to set up a centralized website/ DB where
> 
> I always jump when somebody wants to centralize things...

I know how you feel, although this is more from a manufacturers point of
view:

I develop widget X.

I contact microsoft and have X incorporated into windows.

I want to get it into free software kernels ... ???

> OTOH, one place to collect the info would probably be good. Or at least 
> (to start with) one place listing the various places where such info is 
> currently collected. Perhaps this is a case for a Wiki, and then you'll 
> see in what direction this develops.

Might be a good way to start.

> > > hardware manufacturers and individuals can submid hardware info,
> > > and that is widely advertised to hardware companies around the
> > > globe?
> >
> > Yes, it does. I'm not sure if it makes sense to have it
> > distribution-independent. End-users want to see which hardware is
> > supported by their operating system (the current release, not the
> > development release)

The primary intention here is to make it easy for the manufacturers, not
the end users (however a nice searchable interface for users would
assuredly be a side effect).

If I have a device that has multiple connection types (eg. parallel,
usb, ethernet), who do I contact in the free software world? It's
currently not easy/ known.

It could/ should include information (perhaps in wiki or some "user
submissions") about which kernels/ distros currently have support too,
since that is useful information.

> I guess this depends on what this site wishes to do. Should it be a 
> repository for end-users to get information, or should it be a resource 
> for distribution developers to go looking for device identification 
> information?

Primarily for manufacturers to provide/ submit information to.
Therefore the second primary target I guess would be developers.
Thirdly is users.

Thanks
Zenaan