[clug] Re:Linux Hardware Database (was USB Wireless in Canberra)

[Michael Cohen]

Rodney,
  The wiki idea has been broght up many times before. Personally the mailing list is ideal. poeple can 
send small relevant messages and discussion is pretty good most of the time. The list is archived so you 
can search for peoples experiences. The cost to contributing is even lower than a wiki, because you dont 
have to think how your comment fits within the larger web site structure.

I found the most valuable comments on the list are people asking questions (such as which are the best 
wireless cards to get etc) and people freely sharing their experiences with the list. The list provides 
its own documentation with a kind of relevance aging (people tend to read more recent messages than 
older messages).

Michael.

On Wed, Mar 08, 2006 at 04:55:24PM +1100, Rodney Peters wrote:
> I certainly think that such a database would be worthwhile and would join in, 
> although I have no knowledge to contribute to the current wireless networking 
> topic.
> 
> I tried a similar database for a Linux Learner's SIG.  Its usefulness is 
> limited by only a few people contributing and the info being fairly patchy. 
> FWIW, we use a wiki as the user interface.
> 
> A much larger group, such as CLUG, would have a better chance of making a go 
> of it.  I think the key requirements would be:
> 
> make contributing easy
> 
> get to a critical mass of data as quickly as practical 
> 
> The latter would be a big ask as individuals have differing interests & 
> priorities.  Perhaps ask members to target topical items first eg wireless 
> networking followed by USB hosts & peripherals.
> 
> One potential pitfall with such a database would be allowing obsolete 
> assessments to remain in it.  Identifying the level required for various 
> packages helps, but newbies are generally reluctant to upgrade parts of a 
> distro.  They would be reluctant to buy an item having that prerequisite, 
> whereas it may well work with a later version of a distro, as released.
> 
> 
> Rod
> 
> On Wednesday 08 March 2006 14:09, linux-request at lists.samba.org wrote:
> > Re: [clug] USB Wireless in Canberra
> >  Date: Today 13:57:03
> >  From: Robert Edwards <bob at cs.anu.edu.au>
> >  To: adavid at adavid.com.au
> >  CC: linux at lists.samba.org
> >
> > Harris Technology in Fyshwick may also have some appropriate dongles.
> >
> > On a slightly off-topic, I would be keen to see a user-contributed
> > database of what Linux-friendly hardware is available from where in
> > Canberra (maybe Australia) and possibly how-much it cost at time of
> > purchase and what experiences were had in making it go on which-ever
> > distro.
> >
> > We can provide hosting for the database/website, but I haven't enough
> > time to think through the whole thing at this point.
> >
> > Anyone think this might be worthwhile and want to join in?
> >
> > Cheers,
> >
> > Bob Edwards.
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