I suppose the website you link to isn't entirely useless. If I were contemplating buying a new computer (and I am), I could check every component of a potential computer against the list. If one component were red-listed, then I would know that Linux would not run on that computer. I could then go to my next choice and check every component again.
However, while lists such as these might help me weed out potential computers that won't work, it cannot help me find one that will work. I cannot avoid the compatibility lottery for two reasons: 1) the list is incomplete and 2) hardware compatibility varies from distro to distro and release to release.
I suppose you could make a similar website for the last two versions of every popular distro. Then, I could take each potential computer I was considering purchasing and check each component's compatibility in each distro I want to use (if one system won't work in Ubuntu 8.04, then maybe it will work in 7.10). Please note that this consumer nirvana would only work if the lists were reasonably complete.
What I would love is a website that links to computers from major manufacturers where the current version of a given distro works 100% after install. Perhaps Ubuntu could link to a set of major brand desktops and laptops that work with 7.10 and 8.04. That would be much more useful than a list such as this: http://tuxmobil.org/ibm.html which isn't exactly an easy-to-use Linux shopping guide.
However, while lists such as these might help me weed out potential computers that won't work, it cannot help me find one that will work. I cannot avoid the compatibility lottery for two reasons: 1) the list is incomplete and 2) hardware compatibility varies from distro to distro and release to release.
I suppose you could make a similar website for the last two versions of every popular distro. Then, I could take each potential computer I was considering purchasing and check each component's compatibility in each distro I want to use (if one system won't work in Ubuntu 8.04, then maybe it will work in 7.10). Please note that this consumer nirvana would only work if the lists were reasonably complete.
What I would love is a website that links to computers from major manufacturers where the current version of a given distro works 100% after install. Perhaps Ubuntu could link to a set of major brand desktops and laptops that work with 7.10 and 8.04. That would be much more useful than a list such as this: http://tuxmobil.org/ibm.html which isn't exactly an easy-to-use Linux shopping guide.