[thelist] building new box, hardware concerns

[Felix Miata]

On 06/10/10 14:23 (GMT-0500) dwain.alford at gmail.com apparently typed:

> i'm going to build a new box and use linux as the os (ubuntu or fedora 
> core 5).  i understand that different distros don't support certain 
> hardware.  what advise or references to hardware for the different 
> distros can you offer this first-time builder and linux user?

FC is the most bleeding edge of the more popular distros. That makes it a
good choice for those with bleeding edge hardware or those used to dealing
with bleeding edge stuff in general.

Ubuntu seems to be popular because of ease of use and installation issues.
That makes it better for those whose hardware reached market at least half a
marketing phase ago. It may be less than ideal for many power users. Its
Gnome desktop environment is the more simplistic of the big two, the other
big being KDE. If more desktop power is your leaning, then you should
consider Kubuntu or one of the other distros that feature KDE on equal
footing or preferred environment to Gnome, such as SUSE or Mandriva. If you
have more than nominal space available, you can install both Gnome and KDE
and switch between them. SUSE & KDE are my favorites.

Other than avoiding bleeding edge hardware, it might still be good to avoid
Marvell network chips, found on about half the available motherboards when I
last looked. They're often only discovered after reading the motherboard
manual, if even then. Marvell tends to be what you get when the only
description of the onboard network chip is that it's gigabit. For a while at
least they were troublesome, and might still be. Other than Marvell,
anything designed more than a year ago should be supported by any distro
released within the past 6 months.

All the distros provide extensive hardware support lists. So, pick your
pleasures, then check them out for support.
-- 
"The Lord is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him,
and I am helped."				Psalm 28:7 NIV

 Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409

Felix Miata  ***  http://mrmazda.no-ip.com/