Purchasing a Linux PC

[Michael Ritter]

To all that responded to “RE: Purchasing a Linux PC”,

Thank you for all that responded to my input to the LinuxSA mailing list. The responses that my posting received were far more interesting than my original message. I am fascinated with what people are running.

Firstly, I need to point out that I have 0.4 of a Terra byte, notice the decimal point in front of the 4, or if you would prefer about 400 GB. Considering the responses I have received and the details that people are running from a basic 1.2 Terra byte upwards, ~400GB is, unfortunately, not really that impressive. Thank you Kim Hawtin for spotting the decimal point in front of the 4. Isn’t it just like an Engineer to be careful with physical quantities in their calculations? Who wants to be 10 times out and in error?

I purchased and made a computer with the sole purpose of running Linux (Ubuntu) and never really considered dual booting with Windows XP or running a windows emulator like wine. After all if you’re trying to get away from Windows and enjoy the Linux experience why not just abandon Windows all together for a dedicated machine?

When I built this computer I thought that any new mother board would run Linux. I was only partly correct. My Gigatech mother board has a video chip set so new the drivers had a bug in it and it wouldn’t run 3 dimensional graphics. [Bug 43154] Re: freezes with 3D applications on VIA Unichrome K8M800, KM400, VIA K8M800 Chipset. Anything using OpenGL would lock up the video card first noticed in the Ubuntu Gnome screen savers.

The answer is to purchase an nVidia card. NVidia is well supported on Linux and is the only careful and deliberate purchase to ensure that Linux will run on my box correctly. I have heard that some wireless networking cards won’t work. Be careful in your selection. These little glitches in life are always crop up don’t they? Nothing ever runs smoothly.

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