[SC.LUG] USB DSL Modems / PC choices

[George]

Dave Briggs wrote:
> Does anyone have any recommendations for what brand of PC to go for that will
> provide me with bits that are likely to work well with linux?

If you're going to buy an entire PC (as opposed to building one 
yourself) then Dell would be my suggestion as they sell so many of each 
model that if the kit isn't already supported it won't be long before it 
is. Dell don't however sell AMD kit which is a bit of a shame.

Component wise there isn't much I can think of that isn't supported with 
Linux. If you're into 3D graphics then Nvidia have better drivers than 
ATi, although these are closed source if that's the kind of thing that 
would bother you.

HD wise SATA isn't quite as well supported as IDE yet, for most purposes 
it works fine but tools like hdparm and smartctl don't really work and 
you can find that while most onboard IDE controller don't need OS 
support SATA ones do which may restrict you from installing older or 
more exotic distributions/os's on there.

The thing that's least likely to be supported is onboard networking, 
especially if it's gigabit. You can usually find out through google 
easily enough what the PC/Board uses and whether it's supported, and you 
can always fit a PCI card until it is in a worst case scenario.

George