I have been a part of the Taiwan openSUSE community for almost a year. During this time, I was a volunteer at the openSUSE Asia Summit 2018, and I attended monthly openSUSE meet-ups. It feels great to have a group of people with whom to study and share knowledge.
In the new year, I am curious about how I can contribute to the community with my expertise as an OS certification technical manager in the server hardware industry. My job is to ensure the hardware product we make is compatible with as many operating systems as possible.
Therefore, the first option I have looked into is the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).
Why does the HCL matter? There are four reasons:
1. For some users, an HCL is mandatory before ordering can be started.
2. It increases the user base; by having an updated HCL, people can easily start to use it.
3. Providing a hardware compatibility process to hardware vendors so they can display openSUSE as a compatible OS to their customers could be a chance to increase visibility to users.
4. Establishing an easy-to-follow hardware testing policy may increase the number of hardware vendors and users available to do the test and to report more bugs, and it will make openSUSE more reliable.
The good news is that openSUSE already has an HCL on its wiki page, but we are still facing some challenges. Here, I listed four major problems:
1. The data are entirely outdated.
2. There is much inconsistent information.
3. There is a lack of real data from the real system.
4. Anyone can edit the existing HCL, which could make the data unreliable.
To solve the problems, I herein propose three approaches to improve the HCL:
1. Develop a simple test kit to record the hardware information from the testing hardware system and provide the result to the HCL by submitting logs.
2. Leverage the SUSE Yes Certification Program’s result, listing the SUSE-certified servers in the openSUSE HCL.
3. Expand the HCL source from users to hardware vendors to collect HCL data from the source that are more reliable.
Ultimately, the HCL could develop into a hardware certification program, which can create more value. Adding more test cases can provide more compatibility between the hardware and openSUSE. In addition, we can create more policies to guide the hardware vendor, and we can even design a logo to prove compatibility in the market.
In the end, I will talk about the call to action.
If the audiences are interested in the idea, the HCL needs more people to become involved to:
1. Develop a test suite to collect the HW data; it must be expandable for adding more test cases in the future.
2. Create a basic guideline for the people who want to test their hardware and submit the logs to the openSUSE HCL.
3. Form a team/committee to oversee the process of submitting the HCL.
I have been a part of the Taiwan openSUSE community for almost a year. During this time, I was a volunteer at the openSUSE Asia Summit 2018, and I attended monthly openSUSE meet-ups. It feels great to have a group of people with whom to study and share knowledge.
In the new year, I am curious about how I can contribute to the community with my expertise as an OS certification technical manager in the server hardware industry. My job is to ensure the hardware product we make is compatible with as many operating systems as possible.
Therefore, the first option I have looked into is the Hardware Compatibility List (HCL).
Why does the HCL matter? There are four reasons:
1. For some users, an HCL is mandatory before ordering can be started.
2. It increases the user base; by having an updated HCL, people can easily start to use it.
3. Providing a hardware compatibility process to hardware vendors so they can display openSUSE as a compatible OS to their customers could be a chance to increase visibility to users.
4. Establishing an easy-to-follow hardware testing policy may increase the number of hardware vendors and users available to do the test and to report more bugs, and it will make openSUSE more reliable.
The good news is that openSUSE already has an HCL on its wiki page, but we are still facing some challenges. Here, I listed four major problems:
1. The data are entirely outdated.
2. There is much inconsistent information.
3. There is a lack of real data from the real system.
4. Anyone can edit the existing HCL, which could make the data unreliable.
To solve the problems, I herein propose three approaches to improve the HCL:
1. Develop a simple test kit to record the hardware information from the testing hardware system and provide the result to the HCL by submitting logs.
2. Leverage the SUSE Yes Certification Program’s result, listing the SUSE-certified servers in the openSUSE HCL.
3. Expand the HCL source from users to hardware vendors to collect HCL data from the source that are more reliable.
Ultimately, the HCL could develop into a hardware certification program, which can create more value. Adding more test cases can provide more compatibility between the hardware and openSUSE. In addition, we can create more policies to guide the hardware vendor, and we can even design a logo to prove compatibility in the market.
In the end, I will talk about the call to action.
If the audiences are interested in the idea, the HCL needs more people to become involved to:
1. Develop a test suite to collect the HW data; it must be expandable for adding more test cases in the future.
2. Create a basic guideline for the people who want to test their hardware and submit the logs to the openSUSE HCL.
3. Form a team/committee to oversee the process of submitting the HCL.
