Hardware recommendations: what's the limit?

Question

A fairly common problem when running an OS other than Windows is finding well-supported hardware. I'm actually surprised we're not getting more questions about this. Well, we've just had one, and I wonder how we should respond.

Do we want to have a question about touchpads with certain specific requirements? A general question about pointing devices? A general question about finding hardware support lists?

Related prior discussions:

• Date specific questions Doesn't go beyond “product recommendations bad”. I want to distinguish between recommendations (what's a good X) and information (what X works under Linux).
• Can we allow somewhat time-sensitive 3D graphics hardware questions? The responses were specifically about a certain subcategory of questions (general questions about foo devices).
• For Ask Ubuntu: http://meta.askubuntu.com/questions/1186/are-hardware-recommendations-considered-off-topic It's easier for Ubuntu which has a few official sources; and even that is incomplete (there's a good chance none of the hardware on these lists is available in your part of the world).
• For Super User: hardware recommendations are shopping questions and those are evil. But niche cases can be ok, perhaps.

Answer 1

Here's my view on this.

• We should have a general question on “how do I find hardware compatibility information before buying”, with pointers to various compatibility databases. Probably CW with a single answer.

• Some hardware categories deserve more specific questions, for example graphics cards.

• Hardware recommendation questions that have very specific requirements that aren't easily solved by checking the vendor-listed information or official hardware compatibility lists should be allowed. More general questions should be closed (with a reference to the generic questions).

• Questions asking where to buy are right out.