nemesis wrote:
> True.  And here's the secret about getting your compatible hardware 
> without much ado:
> http://www.linux-drivers.org/

Actually, I've taken to going into the store with a LiveCD. I get funny 
looks from the sales people, but it's easy to boot up Suse 11 and look 
at the hardware list and see if it lists everything. At least you know 
there's *some* support there.

I've had at least two machines where GRUB wouldn't even load - probably 
the motherboard or something, which is actually something surprisingly 
difficult to find out about a computer you plan to buy already built.

> Check before you buy new hardware or if you plan to install Linux on 
> your current hardware.  

Yeah. Funny enough, people complain about Vista not supporting hardware 
right, but don't think that's a problem for Linux. :-) "Just buy the 
right hardware to start with."  My machines tend to last a number of 
years, so "buy the right hardware" isn't always possible for me.

> Most core stuff work out of the box, but 
> new-fangled peripherals are quite often difficult to support because 
> they target Windows and the Linux drivers may have to do some reverse 
> engineering to support it.

A lot of extra-cheap stuff tends to give me problems, too.

> If you want games, Unix is not for you, unless it is nethack or conway's 
> game of life. ;)

Yep.

> Povray works fine on Linux, though. :)

I'm going to be getting an 8G-ram 4-core x64 machine shortly, so I look 
forward to trying out the new POV beta. :)

Maybe I'll even get around to finishing up the distributed render code 
I've written and getting it working without manual intervention on 
Amazon's stuff. That could be fun, as long as I'm bored anyway.

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)

Post a reply to this message