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authorFrans Pop <elendil@planet.nl>2008-10-03 16:05:55 +0000
committerFrans Pop <elendil@planet.nl>2008-10-03 16:05:55 +0000
commit93172851c48fdc28df645b24136e8171b53c2ac5 (patch)
tree51f2d2cdc1aea75dcf9f8cea0d0e3047218117dd /en/hardware/supported-peripherals.xml
parent62f51ed9b17ce89dcf4daab7eb6430134641b963 (diff)
downloadinstallation-guide-93172851c48fdc28df645b24136e8171b53c2ac5.zip
Restructure supported hardware section.
Diffstat (limited to 'en/hardware/supported-peripherals.xml')
-rw-r--r--en/hardware/supported-peripherals.xml116
1 files changed, 2 insertions, 114 deletions
diff --git a/en/hardware/supported-peripherals.xml b/en/hardware/supported-peripherals.xml
index 41a2810a0..138213619 100644
--- a/en/hardware/supported-peripherals.xml
+++ b/en/hardware/supported-peripherals.xml
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
<!-- retain these comments for translator revision tracking -->
<!-- $Id$ -->
- <sect1 id="supported-peripherals">
+ <sect2 id="supported-peripherals">
<title>Peripherals and Other Hardware</title>
<para arch="not-s390">
@@ -41,116 +41,4 @@ board features four 64 bit PCI slots. The Cobalt RaQ has no support for
additional devices but the Qube has one PCI slot.
</para>
-</sect1>
-
- <sect1 arch="not-s390"><title>Purchasing Hardware Specifically for GNU/Linux</title>
-
-<para>
-
-There are several vendors, who ship systems with Debian or other
-distributions of GNU/Linux
-<ulink url="&url-pre-installed;">pre-installed</ulink>. You might pay more
-for the privilege, but it does buy a level of peace of mind, since you can
-be sure that the hardware is well-supported by GNU/Linux.
-
-</para><para arch="m68k">
-
-Unfortunately, it's quite rare to find any vendor shipping
-new &arch-title; machines at all.
-
-</para><para arch="x86">
-
-If you do have to buy a machine with Windows bundled, carefully read
-the software license that comes with Windows; you may be able to
-reject the license and obtain a rebate from your vendor. Searching
-the Internet for <quote>windows refund</quote> may get you some useful
-information to help with that.
-
-</para><para>
-
-Whether or not you are purchasing a system with Linux bundled, or even
-a used system, it is still important to check that your hardware is
-supported by the Linux kernel. Check if your hardware is listed in
-the references found above. Let your salesperson (if any) know that
-you're shopping for a Linux system. Support Linux-friendly hardware
-vendors.
-
-</para>
-
- <sect2><title>Avoid Proprietary or Closed Hardware</title>
-<para>
-
-Some hardware manufacturers simply won't tell us how to write drivers
-for their hardware. Others won't allow us access to the documentation
-without a non-disclosure agreement that would prevent us from
-releasing the Linux source code.
-
-</para><para arch="m68k">
-
-Another example is the proprietary hardware in the older
-Macintosh line. In fact, no specifications or documentation have ever
-been released for any Macintosh hardware, most notably the ADB
-controller (used by the mouse and keyboard), the floppy controller,
-and all acceleration and CLUT manipulation of the video hardware
-(though we do now support CLUT manipulation on nearly all internal
-video chips). In a nutshell, this explains why the Macintosh Linux
-port lags behind other Linux ports.
-
-</para><para>
-
-Since we haven't been granted access to the documentation on these
-devices, they simply won't work under Linux. You can help by asking
-the manufacturers of such hardware to release the documentation. If
-enough people ask, they will realize that the free software community
-is an important market.
-
-</para>
-</sect2>
-
-
- <sect2 arch="x86"><title>Windows-specific Hardware</title>
-<para>
-
-A disturbing trend is the proliferation of Windows-specific modems and
-printers. In some cases these are specially designed to be operated by
-the Microsoft Windows operating system and bear the legend <quote>WinModem</quote>
-or <quote>Made especially for Windows-based computers</quote>. This
-is generally done by removing the embedded processors of the hardware
-and shifting the work they do over to a Windows driver that is run by
-your computer's main CPU. This strategy makes the hardware less
-expensive, but the savings are often <emphasis>not</emphasis> passed on to the
-user and this hardware may even be more expensive than equivalent
-devices that retain their embedded intelligence.
-
-</para><para>
-
-You should avoid Windows-specific hardware for two reasons. The first
-is that the manufacturers do not generally make the resources
-available to write a Linux driver. Generally, the hardware and
-software interface to the device is proprietary, and documentation is
-not available without a non-disclosure agreement, if it is available
-at all. This precludes it being used for free software, since free
-software writers disclose the source code of their programs. The
-second reason is that when devices like these have had their embedded
-processors removed, the operating system must perform the work of the
-embedded processors, often at <emphasis>real-time</emphasis> priority,
-and thus the CPU is not available to run your programs while it is
-driving these devices. Since the typical Windows user does not
-multi-process as intensively as a Linux user, the manufacturers hope
-that the Windows user simply won't notice the burden this hardware
-places on their CPU. However, any multi-processing operating system,
-even Windows 2000 or XP, suffers from degraded performance when
-peripheral manufacturers skimp on the embedded processing power of
-their hardware.
-
-</para><para>
-
-You can help improve this situation by encouraging these manufacturers
-to release the documentation and other resources necessary for us to
-program their hardware, but the best strategy is simply to avoid this
-sort of hardware until it is listed as working in the
-<ulink url="&url-hardware-howto;">Linux Hardware Compatibility HOWTO</ulink>.
-
-</para>
-</sect2>
- </sect1>
+ </sect2>