Is there an easy way to check a notebook's hardware compatibility with ubuntu before you buy it?
I really don't want to buy a notebook home and find several bugs caused by the hardware.
I know that DELL has some notebooks which are pre-installed ubuntu12.04LTS, i.e. the new xps. But what about other notebooks? isn't there a way to quickly check a notebook's compatibility with ubuntu?
A way I can see is using a LiveCD/ubuntu stick and boot in ubuntu first, then run some tests. But the problem is: how to make these tests in a short time automatically??? and how can I check the hardware compatibility? I know that I can use lshw or hardinfo to get informations, but only having the information is not enough, there are still some possibilities that your hardware has a bug. For instance, Lenovo T410i's wireless driver has a bug which causes extremely low speed internet connection, I googled a lot and recompiled the driver to fix that bug. So this is the kind of situation I'm trying to avoid.
Any help is appreciated.
Best Answer
Testing hardware compatibility is a long a tedious process, even if you have unrestricted access to the hardware. There is no easy way, I am afraid. Without proper vendor support and testing for Linux, it's down to the user to make sure the hardware works, and that is anything but easy.