[Techtalk] Buying a machine without Windows

[Lee Blackwell]

> If you have the skills to build your own machine from disparate parts,
> I highly recommend it. It's fun, it gives you a better knowledge of
> your own system, and it keeps your skills sharp. Plus, you can
> price-shop for the components *you* need and want, and customize the
> machine to your own needs and desires. Don't want to deal with IDE
> drives? Great! Just go and build yourself a SCSI system. Don't care if
> the video card has more than 4MB of memory on it, but you want a
> really kick-ass sound card? Grab the parts and plug 'em in!
>
> But then, I'm pretty comfortable with x86 hardware. I understand that
> not everyone can go this route, nor is it appropriate or the easiest
> thing even for those that theoretically could. But I wanted to throw
> it into the discussion.

I'd whole heartedly agree with you, but (!) you'd need to be sure that
your new hardware is supprted within Linux first.  Often the latest
bleeding edge bits of hardware are not yet supported within the Linux
kernel and hence unusable unless you are a guru kernel developer.

I was in a similar situation where I was provided with the latest (at the
time) P3/800 laptop, which had various bits of kit too new to work.  In
the end I swapped it for a slightly older P3/500.. and it's still going
even after I've dropped it a couple of times ;-)

The Linux Hardware Database (http://lhd.zdnet.com/) may be useful for
checking your hardware, before you buy.

Lee.