[Gllug] Desktops with preinstalled linux

[Christopher Hunter]

On Wed, 2009-11-25 at 02:25 +0000, general_email at technicalbloke.com
wrote:
> 

> Although I'm sure Brasero will be robust and feature complete someday I
> ended up buying Nero a few weeks back for exactly that reason, I had
> work to do that day! 

I find k3b to be robust and feature-complete, and can actually do rather
more than Nero can.

> The last thing I can afford is to have to spend days and weeks trying 
> to get hardware working which is often a worry with linux + new products. 

I fully understand that problem!

> Or maybe I've just missed it and you all know... Are there any UK online
> shops (or central london shops) that sell components and peripherals
> that are known to work well with linux?

Not that I know of.

>  Right now I need a new all-in-one printer but the market moves so fast 
> I'm finding it hard to track down the right blend of known decent linux 
> compatibility and cheap 3rd party ink availability.

You'll find that any of the HP models work well, and have Linux software
provided by HP themselves.  HPLIP works flawlessly for me.

> I've been told kodak don't work at all, and that HP work great, but I
> can't find bargain ink for them anywhere.

I buy ink in bulk by mail order - it's the most sensible way - but (if
you must) any branch of "Cartridge World" will stock very cheap HP
compatible cartridges.

>  Inkwise the cheapest are Canon then Epson but, as the manufacturers 
> and retailers make no claim for linux compatibility, I'm still not sure 
> if they will work well with Ubuntu. 

Canon specifically and deliberately don't support Linux, though they do
now provide some (very limited) drivers,  as even they have realised
that they're losing market share.  There are third-party drivers
available for all the Canon models, but they're proprietary, paid-for
ones - "Turboprint" and "Gutenberg" spring to mind.

The HP "all-in-one" beneath my desk at the moment is a PSC2355, which is
the best I've found - it's cheap to use, scans very well (Sane has no
problem with it at all), has pretty good print quality and is small and
neat enough to fit unobtrusively in my very small home office.

C.

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