The discussion will center on two common hardware support issues that affect Debian and Debian-derived distributions: how to easily install and configure drivers for a given set of hardware and how to ensure hardware devices will function correctly once that software is installed. The presentation will survey questions and issues that Intel's customers have faced when deploying an ever-growing number of Debian derived distributions and will present a number of interesting analogies related to hardware support. This will segue into a discussion about an open source prototype application named "Topper", which is designed to maintain key knowledge on hardware and software
dependencies. The application definition, scope, design and goals will be discussed along with Topper user interface and interface to validation environment. At the conclusion the speakers will demonstrate the prototype, in which a Q & A with the audience will be offered.