X.org, distributors, and proprietary modules

X.org, distributors, and proprietary modules

That's the trouble.

It's not the distros are the ones being controlled. It's that the distros are desigined to be used by end users and the end users are the ones being controlled by propriatory stuff.

What maybe distros should do is to provide certification and recommended hardware for their system.

Linux is at the point now were people WANT to run Linux and they will modify their purchasing decisions based on Linux compatability. But most people aren't going to understand binary vs open source drivers and don't know which hardware vendor does this or does that.

Or to put it another way.. Even though Distros are mainly Free software this Free software is more valuable to people then the computer it runs on.

But people have limited resources and money and therefore if their computer can't run a distro then they simply won't be able to run that distro.

So what people like FC and Ubuntu should do is have recommended hardware and certified hardware system.

If I am fairly clueless user and want to run FC I would like to be able to go to FC and find out:
what proccessor I should buy
what wifi card I should buy (this is a BIG one)
what printer I should buy
what scanner should I buy
what motherboard and/or chipset should I buy
what video card should I buy
and maybe were I should buy it from.

This would make my purchasing decisions easier.

This is different from a 'compatability' list.. this is recommended hardware list. This is the 'ideal' hardware for best compatability and best support with your distro of choice.

A couple of examples are:
the KRP, which is favored hardware for building a HDTV Linux PVR. Using this certification system I should be able to go out and buy a computer, plug Knoppmyth into it and have a working HD-ready PVR in under 20 minutes. Full installation end-to-end.
http://www.mysettopbox.tv/KRP.html

Gamix is designed to create a standardized platform you could build or buy for playing games. The idea is that game developers could build gaming DVDs for this platform and it should work universally well on any other PC somebody builds with certified componates. The game developer has full control with the entire software stack. Obviously targetted for Linux support, but not nessicarially.
http://www.gamix.com/

Try to use the cheapness, flexibility, and performance of PC commodity hardware without the hassle of the end user dealing with driver issues or Windows.

This is different from 'compatability lists' because recommended hardware lists are much more focused, much more attainable.

With Windows you have the 'recommends windows xp' stuff along with their windows driver criteria stuff. With OS X you have Apple controlling the hardware completely and thus everything 'just works'. Linux can 'just work' for people also, but you need to have good hardware support.

If the recommended hardware for Ubuntu or FC or whatever works out then you can start to define a open common hardware criteria system. Much like how the LSB is for software compatability you can determine a LHB for a Linux hardware compatability.