On Mon, 27 Dec 1999, Gary Pinkerton wrote: > I am a reseller of COMPAQ, HP, IBM and Toshiba laptops, and would like to > know if their current products are compatible with Debian GNU/Linux ?
I have been able to install Debian on several laptop models (see, for instance, http://sdss.ucsd.edu/~vaio). However, Debian is not a commercial distribution, and I doubt that Debian will ever certify installation on a specific commercial product. It is up to a company like yours to make such a certification, or for a company that packages a Debian-based commercial distribution. An example of a company that will (in theory) sell Debian pre-installed is at www.linuxlaptops.com. Basically, any computer that is compatible with the Linux kernel is also compatible with Debian. The question is really one of hardware support. Many laptops have hardware that is not Linux kernel compatible. For example, there are "Winmodems" that are software modems using proprietary drivers. Also, newer technologies such as USB are only supported in the unstable kernel tree at present. To find out (in general) about Linux on laptop computers, you should also look at this URL: http://www.cs.utexas.edu/users/kharker/linux-laptop/ While I wish anyone luck at building a business pre-installing Debian on laptop computers, there are going to be issues that require a high level of expertise at this point in time. Thanks. Syrus. -- -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Syrus Nemat-Nasser <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> UCSD Physics Dept.
