Smolt: Fedora Hardware Profiler

[Mike McGrath]

On 1/31/07, Michael Wiktowy <michael.wiktowy at gmail.com> wrote:
> So if Smolt does not give any indication that hardware is working, it
> seems only useful when talking with tech support/bugzilla and you need
> a simple way to gather all the data on your machine to give to someone
> more knowledgeable to figure out.
>
> So what is derived from putting it into firstboot and collecting
> statistics that won't tell you anything other than the range of
> hardware that exists in the world? What the motivation is for
> collecting this data from everyone? I see Smolt as a useful tool for
> interactive troubleshooting but I can see much beneficial use for the
> data collected. Can you offer some examples?
>
> /Mike

Tons.

Hey Dell, did you know (insert number) people are using Fedora Linux
on your systems?  Mind helping us with driver support?

Hey Nvidia, We've seen (insert number) people trying to use the nvidia
cards.  Unfortunately because your driver is not open source, many of
them are unable to use all the features of your card.

Hey dev's (insert popular hardware) we had no idea this many people
were using this setup.  Lets get one and test everything for them.

Hey dev's almost no one is using (insert un-popular arch here) perhaps
we should think about making it a secondary arch.

Hey (insert popular university here) we've got a TON of users now,
would you be interested in partnering with us to host some things?
Perhaps we could propose some curriculum for your CS department?

Depending on how the LHCP development goes we may add a "doesn't or
does" work feature.  But its not there right now.  For Smolt I wanted
to stay away from feature creep :-D  Its initial inception was just
for Metrics but as demands come about, we'll see.

                  -Mike