since I received so much feedback I have to explain better my thoughts
my idea was about a documentation-only package, something like
doc-linux-* packages, a collection of documents and links to webpages
useful for the owner of a certain laptop
adding dependencies is a difficult thing, this way you have probably to
make decisions (e: choose powernowd or cpufreqd?) and break user
configuration
a collection of documentation can be installed by anyone without taking
care of dependencies, one may happily read changelog and read for example
* intel i855 specifications released to the public
...
* new alsa driver for winmodem xxx
a package is better than checking personally the web from time to time
may be that linux-on-laptops web pages are complete, so mainteiner's
work will be only to fetch useful pages for his brand-serie, provide
links, maintain a changelog and send "bug reports" and additional
information from debian users to linux-on-laptop as it be an upstream
mainteiner
mainteinig the package up to date can be a problem, but sticking it to
the serie can be a solution
(my english can be misleading, for "serie" I mean a collection of laptop
with similar names that a vendor releases together, for example
toshiba A30-xxx is a serie, toshiba M30-xxx or toshiba A40-xxx is another)
a serie is released in a short period of time and with similar hardware,
the differences are often condensated in a different videoboard, a
different processor clock, a wider or narrower screen ...
whenever a new serie is released there will be some debian user, one of
those could take the job to create a simple package while searching the
web for documentation about his hardware
creating an user-friendly laptop or debian installation is beyond the
scope of such a package (too difficult and time-consuming, you have
probably to create a team of people for each laptop, or a payed vendor
programmer ...)
I will personally try to create a simple package tomorrow and post it
probably a good thing could be a package like toolchain-source, able to
easily create package templates, but it is beyond my ability ...
I personally own a toshiba A30-303
if we are able to create a little pool of documentation packages about
laptop we will be able to decide what is better to do
after the Good Idea (TM), the Idea That Works requires some running code
... :)
bye
--
Riccardo Vestrini
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
"Io ho una deformazione professionale, sono Ingegnere, e il problema in
quello che lei dice è l'essere umano, perché una macchina può sbagliare
ma l'essere umano ha sicuramente molti più difetti" --
sconosciuto ad un congresso, mentre un manager parlava di risorse umane
