[Slugnet] [OT] Hardware Recommendations

[desire at gmail.com]

My 2c

On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 5:00 AM, C David Rigby <c.david.rigby at gmail.com>wrote:

> On Sun, Nov 9, 2008 at 2:03 AM, Edwin Lee <edwin11_1979 at yahoo.com.sg>wrote:
>
>> Of utmost importance of course, is compatibility with Linux (i'm not even
>> sure
>> if this is actually a moot point, i.e., can i take this for granted), and
>> stability and reliability.
>
>
> IMHO, you cannot yet take these things for granted. Many manufacturers
> still release for Windows first, and Linux compatibility is an
> after-thought, or left to the community to firm up.
>

I daresay that the basic stuff should be well supported, though others might
not be supported out of the box - eg, wired nic, bluetooth, built-in
wireless, firewire, and goodness knows what else is found on motherboards
these days. If you need that functionality today, it would be best to
research the chipsets used in that motherboard, and whether they are
supported in $your_favourite_distro.

Having said that, Sanjeev^H^H^H^H^H^H^Ha wise man once suggested a form of
linux advocacy in that you walk into the shop and specifically ask if it
supports linux. If they say no, don't know, shrug and point to the box, etc,
walk to the next shop. The premise is that the shops are in business to make
money, and couldn't care less what the product supports as long as it sells.
If you silently do research and buy stuff that you know is supported, the
shop doesn't know that you're buying it because it supports linux. If you
don't buy because it isn't supported, the store will feel some pain from a
lost sale. With enough positive and negative feedback that linux support is
important, they will in turn start to ask their suppliers for linux support,
and that will trickle back to the manufacturers.
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