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Idea #16665: Hardware certification testing + logo

Written by HeartBurnKid the 20 Dec 08 at 09:37. Category: Hardware support. Related project: Nothing/Others. Status: New
Rationale
You know those "Designed for Windows XP/Vista/Mac" tags that are often seen on hardware packages? They provide the advantage of peace of mind; one can go into the store, purchase a piece of hardware, and know it will work with their system without having to do a ton of research on-line first. No Linux flavor offers that yet, but Ubuntu, being the most popular distro out there right now, might be able to change that.

What I'm proposing is that Canonical set up a hardware certification service, whereby hardware vendors would submit their items for testing (for a nominal fee), and, as long as the item meets Canonical's standards for compatibility with Ubuntu, they get an "Ubuntu Certified" logo that they can display on their packaging and advertising. As for the standards in question, those would be for Canonical to determine, but I'm thinking that it either has to a) be able to download all requirements from Canonical's repositories, or b) come with a simple installer that can install any drivers or software necessary (think .deb files, or scripts to add repositories; not a big wad of source code to compile).

I understand Canonical already does this for full systems, to some degree (http://www.ubuntu.com/partners/hardwareprogramme), but I would love to see it extended to individual components as well. Wi-fi cards and printers, in particular, could use a program like this; knowing how many of each have severe issues under Linux, being able to quickly spot a compatible one while shopping would be a godsend. Plus, having the certification logo featured in the advertising of prominent hardware vendors can only help raise awareness of Ubuntu.

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Solution #1: Auto-generated solution of idea #16665
Written by HeartBurnKid the 20 Dec 08 at 09:37.
Ubuntu Brainstorm was updated in January 2009. Since the idea #16665 was submitted before this update, its rationale and solution are not separated. Please vote accordingly, and if you have the necessary rights, please separate the rationale from the solution. Thanks!

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Primož Papič wrote on the 20 Dec 08 at 13:31
I think this is a dupe...
There were ideas like this before, like supported hardware list...

vs8 wrote on the 20 Dec 08 at 14:47
This is a great idea, it could help Ubuntu's growth a lot.

mela1 wrote on the 20 Dec 08 at 15:24
Such certification is a must for scanners and other optic based products.

andruk (Idea reviewer) wrote on the 20 Dec 08 at 16:22
Good luck getting hardware manufacturers to pay for this. But it is a good idea, so:

+1

dee70 wrote on the 20 Dec 08 at 16:31
Good idea. Not sure if hardware makers would bother to participate though.

The easiest ways I have found to determine if hardware is compatible is to look things up on newegg, click the "read all reviews" and search for the word Ubuntu.

kernel_script wrote on the 20 Dec 08 at 17:32
A really great idea.

+1

zooounds wrote on the 20 Dec 08 at 18:48
I think this should be done as a cooperation with the biggest linux distribution (like Ubuntu, RH/Feodora, Suse) etc.

CairoTanni wrote on the 20 Dec 08 at 21:43
Linux compatible labels (with tux) are seen sometimes on hardware; SanDisk USB flash drives are an example.

t4ggs wrote on the 21 Dec 08 at 09:03
I'm about to buy some new computers and I need a webpage to know it all the hardware I want is compatible with linux, specially audio and wifi.. I really would buy a product with a linu/ubuntu certificate first than the windows certificate.

is there any webpage like that??

crazyivan wrote on the 22 Dec 08 at 18:45
There's a little Tux logo on the back of UT2004 if you look. Some of the HW aimed for the (sorry for this) geeky crowd has Tux logos on it, but yeah, most of the mass market stuff doesn't say if it will work with Linux and it's just such a pain trying to figure that out.

The Linux Standard Base (LSB) is an attempt at some kind of standardisation of the kernel across multiple distributions. Assuming the hardware detection and hardware drivers bit is now part of the LSB, the following could work:

Rather than choosing to ask a few specific distros whether a piece of hardware works with theirs, it would be better to test the hardware against the LSB; a pass would mean any LSB-compliant distro will work with it. (Which should be quite a few.)

This should circumvent the inevitable disagreements involved in making the biggest distros work together over this. Though I do believe that they should make all the effort they can to work together whenever possible.

A Tux logo or "Certified against Linux Standard Base" logo could then be stuck on the box, and any potential *nux user would then know if the hardware worked or not. Easy.

+1

ccompagnon wrote on the 27 Dec 08 at 12:26
with luck we will get positive network effect by the side of the hardware if the logo appear on it.

+1

pablodav wrote on the 31 Dec 08 at 17:57
There are lot of laptops, like my MSI PR 200 that suspend does not work and Intel i960 Graphic card does not support opengl 2.1 still.

It will be good if we have some certified laptops to be sure that suspend, and all the hardware works fine on Ubuntu. So in our time to select a laptop or whatever hardware we could be sure that will work on our favorite system!

+1


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