As Friendly As It Gets

I don’t do the Linux desktop thing anymore, but I still help out at campus installfests because Open Source Is A Good Idea, especially for teaching people about computers. What’s not a good idea, however, is trying to get Linux working on miserable, cheap HP/Compaq/Gateway/Dell “home consumer” PCs and laptops that are brimming over with soldered-together integrated parts barely supported by Windows. Linux distributions have generally offered official and unofficial “supported hardware” lists, but these are often inaccurate and out of date. The world has long needed a decent central site for listing Linux compatible hardware.

LFriendly could have been that site, but instead it’s a tiny pile of weak content and endless links back to its sponsor, Lindows. Lindows has long been the “bad citizen” of the Linux community, contributing back little while feeding its own hype machine on the coattails of hard-working open source developers. LFriendly is more of the same old Lindows bullshit.