Ubuntu Hardware Documentation

[Little Girl]

Hey there,

shirish wrote:
> Little Girl wrote:
 
> > I'm thinking a wiki is not the best of places to have a hardware
> > database. It can be pretty daunting to have to edit a wiki table
> > with technical information when you've never done that before. As
> > a result, it's possible that there's quite a bit of hardware
> > missing from people who just didn't want to bother.
 
>     I totally agree that a wiki would not be a good solution but it
> would make lot of difference to also have some kind of rating system
> alongwith the objective tests.
> If a good percentage of people perceive as well as is shown by
> objective tests as well whether to be working good or not would make
> lot of difference.

I'm not sure how I feel about that. Rating systems are subjective, so
the ratings would be in the eye of the beholder. I would think the
most important points to cover are whether a piece of hardware:
* Works without any intervention.
* Works with minor intervention.
* Works with a lot of intervention.
* Doesn't work at all.

> Have you seen smolts.org . From what little I have seen is each
> entry is assigned a particular UUID ( in another words a label )
> with which he can see stuff. It makes it also a pressure point for
> vendors if they know their users use ubuntu.
 
> It would be nice if we could have have that.

I would hope that avoiding the last two items on the above list would
be high praise for any vendor. (:
 
> > An ideal solution would be to create a MySQL database with a PHP
> > front-end. That way users wouldn't have to know how to format the
> > information - they could just answer questions by filling in boxes
> > and making selections from drop-down menus. (:
 
> If MySQL then one of the engines which has locking capabilities. For
> every year or two I upgrade or replace some part of the computer (or
> accesorize it) . This info. needs to be updated in the database as
> well.

Yep, and the old parts shouldn't be removed from the database since
there are people who use older machines, and it would be nice to have
the information available.
 
> There s just so much one can play with but unless the hw-db becomes
> browseable its all just dreams :(

Browsing and searching a MySQL database could be made quick and easy
with PHP, and I have a feeling it would be easier to maintain than
the wiki entries.

-- 
Little Girl

There is no spoon.