Written by torkiano the 15 Jan 09 at 00:04.

Smolt is a hardware profiler to enable users to submit their hardware profiles during installation.

Smolt, like PackageKit from Fedora is also a distribution neutral tool and collects stats anonymously and sends it to a central database.

It became clear quite quickly that it does not make sense to have a per-distro solution for that - if we want to have momentum with a hardware database a combined effort promises the most.

Fedora and Opensuse already implemented it.

See http://smolts.org/
http://www.osnews.com/story/20621/Smolt_gets_adopted_by_openSUSE

Smolt is a hardware profiler to enable users to submit their hardware profiles during installation. Smolt, like PackageKit from Fedora is also a distribution neutral tool and collects stats anonymously and sends it to a central database. It became clear quite quickly that it does not make sense to have a per-distro solution for that - if we want to have momentum with a hardware database a combined effort promises the most. Fedora and Opensuse already implemented it. See http://smolts.org/ http://www.osnews.com/story/20621/Smolt_gets_adopted_by_openSUSE

Written by JJRabbit the 28 Jan 09 at 19:38.

Like Smolt, only it will link to a website where people can place comments about their hardware.

This would allow the advantages of installing a proprietary-driver versus opensource-driver to be discussed with people who own the same hardware.

It would also be easier to discover problems with Ubuntu and your hardware-compatibility than by searching for this information on a support forum.

Like Smolt, only it will link to a website where people can place comments about their hardware. This would allow the advantages of installing a proprietary-driver versus opensource-driver to be discussed with people who own the same hardware. It would also be easier to discover problems with Ubuntu and your hardware-compatibility than by searching for this information on a support forum.

Written by ubuntuuser the 2 Jun 09 at 14:24.

just like softwares, a driver repository maintained by the community can be set up. repo will act as a centralized database for all the drivers ranging from webcams, wifi drivers to camcorders. we can get the companies to submit the drivers to the repo directly. then Smolt can collect the data, interact with the repo and automatically download the required driver. (although smolt has a repo, it does not automate the download and installation of the drivers, which can be done)

just like softwares, a driver repository maintained by the community can be set up. repo will act as a centralized database for all the drivers ranging from webcams, wifi drivers to camcorders. we can get the companies to submit the drivers to the repo directly. then Smolt can collect the data, interact with the repo and automatically download the required driver. (although smolt has a repo, it does not automate the download and installation of the drivers, which can be done)