[Cialug] Buying a new pc

[David Champion]

I like the theory of buying a Dell w/ Linux pre-installed. The version
of Ubuntu that gets installed is somewhat scaled down. There's also a
limited hardware choice.

If you're a little choosy about your hardware, it's not too hard to get
a good linux compatible machine. For a desktop, that mostly just means
getting a video card that will work. I've been a fan of nVidia hardware
for a while. Their drivers work well in Linux, but they're not OSS. ATI
is working on open-sourcing their drivers - but there's not an OSS
version available yet.

Any of the modern Linux distros should "just work" for a desktop. It's
mostly laptops that have odd hardware that you'll have trouble with.

-dc

Theron Conrey wrote:
> If I was in the market today for a new Desktop PC, wanted Linux as a main OS, and also wanted windows installed, I prob. Shell the coin and get a Dell Ubuntu preinstall.
> 
> 1) all the crazy drivers work.
> 2) supporting the perception of Linux as $$ worthy.
> 3) all done, easy as pie.
> 4) If you get NVIDIA this way, Ubuntu does a good job of making it easy to allow users to install proprietary drivers, including NVIDIA.
> 5) get a new dual core "VT" enabled chipset, install Qemu, and the kernel modules, and use a preexisting license that you've already paid for to install Windows in a virtual environment.  If there are hardware issues that don't work this way, install VMware Workstation 6 for Linux and load Windows that way.  If there are crazy hardware issues that just refuse to play nicely, use your existing license, just repartition the drive to install it there.  If you were really worried, get a different HD to install it on.  With the few $ you'll save buying this desktop (it won't be much, but cost isn't the point is it?) buy a separate hard drive to install windows on.
> 
> Just my 10c.  Although if you're looking at desktops from Tiger Direct, remember, that valid warranty on a shiny dell Linux desktop may come in handy someday.  I've stopped building computers I can buy, excluding some EPIA VIA custom jobs etc for myth front ends, but I realize that building them is part of the fun.
> 
> -Theron
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: cialug-bounces at cialug.org [mailto:cialug-bounces at cialug.org] On Behalf Of Matthew Nuzum
> Sent: Sunday, September 30, 2007 9:04 PM
> To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group
> Subject: Re: [Cialug] Buying a new pc
> 
> On 9/30/07, jason at benalto.com <jason at benalto.com> wrote:
>> 4) Nvdia are still the Linux friendly graphics people, right?
> 
> Word at my office is that Intel is the most Linux friendly graphics option. They not only provide a driver, they actually work with the open source community. With nVidia, yes, it will work, and work very well, but you often need to install it separately after the OS by downloading a binary driver from their website. Every time you update the kernel, you'll have to re-install the driver.
> 
> If I wanted maximum 3d perf I'd probably get the nVidia, but if I wanted a balance of good 3d perf and ease of use I'd do Intel.
> 
> --
> Matthew Nuzum
> newz2000 on freenode
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