Users need help choosing their computers

Posted Nov 14, 2006 20:01 UTC (Tue) by drag (guest, #31333)
In reply to: Users need help choosing their computers by rknop
Parent article: Resisting the binary blob

The "average user" is incapable of building their own computer. The fact that people like us tend to think that a hardware guide would be usefull for most people just illistrates how ultra-geek we are. Generally speaking Linux community is out of touch with normal users.

The majority of computers sold today are laptop computers anyways and manufacturers typically try to make them as much 'black boxes' as they can.

In that case the hardware guide that people need to know is:
Buy a Intel-based notebook with Intel onboard video.

The trouble with that is that generally speaking those Intel systems come with Intel-based driver thatrequires closed source 'regulatary blob'. But wireless cards are much much easier to swap out generally then video.

That's about it.

The better solution is to get OEMs to support Linux on their hardware by default and encourage and aid the kernel developers in protecting their copyrights by creating distros that shun binary-blobs and binary-only drivers.

So if you get asked a question what hardware should I buy for Linux?
The easy answer is to go 'Get a System76 (or rcubed or whatnot) notebook computer with Intel video'