First, have desktops (and maybe servers?), not just laptops.

Second, change the way that computers are found. When a person registers their computer, have them select (from a drop-down list) their manufacturer, type (desktop, notebook, netbook?), series (n80, inspiron, mini), and model (n80-x1, inspiron 7200, mini 1000). Then choose OS by type (*nix, windows), type (ubuntu, vista), edition/version (8.10, business SP2). Using this, I would use drop-down menus to search for Asus, laptop, n80,-x1, ubuntu, 8.10 and Windows vista home premium SP1. It would then show results by relevancy. Maybe it would show me an Asus laptop with ubuntu, or an Asus n80 with windows vista. This would make registering and finding a computer easier, but would require much more usage of the system to work well.

Third, show user specific configurations. I would register my laptop and write what I did to get my wireless card and sound working. I would also write what I had to do in BIOS in order to boot from a cd (and trust me, it was anything but straight-forward on my old laptop). Then someone else who owns this laptop or was sent to it through the above search method could do what I did. It would be very helpful. Also, a team of moderators could work to copy things from the forums into there in order to organize information much better.

This is something I had been thinking about and considered starting up a website for, but it would work far better in an already-large linux site, which is why I'm recommending it here. This would make linux much less scary to the common n00b, which everyone was at some point.

The reason the HCL doesn't have desktops (historically) is that anyone can hack together a desktop with different parts- motherboards, ram, harddrives, etc etc. Laptops are a bit more what-you-get-everyone-else-gets-too.

I think the concept of having "hacks" of how to get a piece of hardware working in linux sounds interesting, and deserves further discussion. However, what if you put in some information that other people have trouble with? If it was a forum thread question/answer would be easy, not so if it was "locked in" as a HCL entry.

"Team of Moderators" LQ is run by people volunteering their time, and they do not get paid. In fact, besides some back-end access, the mods are not any different to you or me. I don't think we would see a "team of mods" doing a large scale data transfer to the HCL.

good thoughts though!

titanium_geek

I agree with some of that.
I've heard the idea of installing linux and then having it automatically go install system-specific stuff. The problem with that is that either people would put in viruses or it would require a team of mods.

And about mods - I have been lead to believe that a smaller percentage of mods have malicious intent than of normal users.

And there are some common models of desktops that are common enough to deserve a spot.

And for my idea, I think it would be good to have links to forums tagged with that computer rather than moving forums there. The submission system could be applied to normal forums.