[Hwdb-devel] debian hwdb

[Zenaan Harkness]

I'm just CC-ing those on the BOF in case you are not yet subscribed to
this HWDB list. Whether you are or not or don't want to be, rest
assured, you won't get any more emails from me directly.

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OK, I just checked out the tar ball. Sorry it took so long - it was much
less time consuming than I thought it would be.

My primary thought:

In my mind, the whole problem today is that every distributor has their
own hardware database.

Of course, it's a problem that Debian doesn't have one at all, but I
feel it is a larger and longer-term problem that we are not solving
simply by having our "own debian hwdb".

There are three classes of users:

1) end users
2) manufacturers
3) driver developers (at least those independant from class 2)

A debian specific hwdb solves the problem for Debian users in category
1) only.

How limited is that (rhetorical!)!?!

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The problem for end users is knowing what's supported. They might be
using GNU/Linux, want to try Debian GNU/HURD, or be on *BSD.

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The problem for manufacturers is multiple targets:
 - *BSDs
 - ***GNU/Linux - many more than the BSDs
 - other free kernels that come along (GNUMach, L5?, ...)

contrast this to the target for the Dark Side: a company called
Microsoft.

There is a massive difference here. Starting Debian hwdb doesn't solve
that. That is thinking so small.

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The problem for developers is getting technical data, finding
manufacturer contact information, finding out if there already is a
driver somewhere (the latter not so hard - use google).

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So: what I would like to see, *that*will*be*better*for*DEBIAN in the
long run, is a kernel-, os- and distro- neutral database for Free
software projects.

Such a beast would attract the help and support of:
 - the *BSDs
 - end users for each and every distro eventually (no reason not to
include distro-specific info)
 - manufacturers, since they suddenly have a SINGLE target to which they
can provide technical, contact, and other information to, to (at least
minimally) "support" the free software community

Centralized location is easy to promote. If it's properly *-neutral,
every dog and his keyboard in our community will get behind it,
advertise it to every manufacturer/ "manufacturers developer" who ever
comes asking, or even we go out of our way to pro-actively advertise to
manufacturers.

Red Hat, SUSE, Novell, IBM, HP and every other company out there with a
direct interest in Linux will get the idea, and refer their third-party
queries/ contacts to this central location.

And the net result will actually be momentum.

Surely this is the sensible, logical, long-term better approach, for the
whole community AS WELL AS for Debian!

Surely this is obvious?

Something that begins to satisfy this broader problem as I've outlined
above, is something I would get behind.

Otherwise, please let me know this scope is not of interest and I'll
quietly go away.

Thanks
Zenaan