Proposal for re-organizing the HCL

[balko]

@tempmail

I’d ask myself would it motivate user to do such exhaustive test?

I think there will be no issue with that, the community is great, people are ready to spend time and provide information valuable for others:

• I myself filled the HCL with similar level of details, including instructions for other users: HCL - Apple MacBook Pro (11,1)
• Other users also provided a lot of details in their HCLs and forum posts in the recommended list topic (but still failed to get to the list for too strict criteria that should be lifted).
• I tried this list on the most recent HCL report: HCL - Dell Precision 5510 i7-6820HQ and the user @Qubesthrowaway managed to fill most of the gaps. The HCL became more detailed, didn’t it?

And users that are new to Qubes OS and not advanced enough to check the list, or ones who are not willing to proceed, can send HCL reports in usual way without additional info. These HCL reports are almost useless to my opinion for the community.

@tempmail

The more sensitive question: I can imagine new user thinking to switch to Qubes and, naturally checking such a list, only to find out there is practically no computer without issues with Qubes on it, or not affordable or available.

The result should be present as a big table that shows that almost everything works for recommended models. It is not a problem that something is not working or requires script/workaround if user knows it in advanced. Not all laptops work perfectly well even with GNU/Linux.

@tempmail

how would new users know what is essential enough to use Qubes? For example, would not-working touchpad frighten new user?

Models, that are not meet basic criteria of having something essential (like having VT-d, or sufficient memory) will not present int he recommended list at all.

About touchpad: user can decide themselves. You maybe do not value it that much but maybe some users choose the device based on how good touchpad is. So, it simply should be in the table to choose.