| To my mind, there are a great number, especially locally written ones. I | love using my FreeSwan to Cisco PIX howto as a great example. It's there | because I needed to do it. I don't need to install a dial up modem. The | people that -do- need to write the howtos. We'll edit them and clean them | up!
Sadly that is the problem. Hardware is the tricky one and is the one area where new users are going to get stuck.
As an idea how hard would it be to add a section to the wiki where users can enter a list of their hardware and peripherals and get a report back ~ on any issues etc contributed from other wiki users?
I know it would take a bit of work, but it could be fun and could even be of some benefit to the old hands.
If you're suggesting a place where prospective linux users can post a hardware list and get a "yea or nay" on whether it'll work, I'm not sure how well that'll work. You're better off looking at the myriad of HCL sites around the place, such as http://www.linuxquestions.org/hcl/index.php. Or asking on the mailing list. The wiki already has the infrastructure in place for people to do the reverse - post descriptions of their hardware and what they had to do to make it work. http://www.wlug.org.nz/HardwareNotes is an existing parent page Individual pages can be created and linked from there, or if it's just a small tidbit, it can be added in http://www.wlug.org.nz/MiscHardwareNotes