List of Debian compatible hardware?

A comprehensive list would be impossible to maintain. For some machine architectures, Debian is more or less the only choice (alpha, hppa, ia64) since most other distributions now only bother with 32 and 64 bit Intel-compatible architecture.

A quick rule of thumb – if the hardware is newer than six months old, it may be that no distribution will support it fully. The usual problems are graphics chipsets, Ethernet drivers and wi-fi.

Everything ultimately depends on the level of support for hardware drivers in the kernel. Sometimes, it may be that the kernel in Debian stable is too old but the hardware is supported in the kernel in Testing/Unstable.

This sort of problem was the main motivation for “etch and a half” and also for updated installer disks, especially from Kenshi Muto.

Discussions have been held on the mailing lists about the possibility of more regular kernel updates, even within stable where application stablitlty is paramount, perhaps adding the possibility of updating a kernel witin one of the point releases which tend to occur regularly, approximately every 3 monbths.