RE: [LUG] Hardware

["Jon Still" <jon-pop@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

To be honest, the best advice I can give with getting Linux-friendly
hardware is to build a machine yourself.

Good points of this are:

1.  You know EXACTLY what is in the machine.
2.  You can make SURE that all the components work with Linux/*BSD/whatever
OS.

Downsides:

1.  Probably slightly more expensive.
2.  Takes time to build (especially if you've never done it before).
3.  No warranty/guarantee.

Having said that - I still feel this is the best way to go.  Plus it also
means you can be as minimalist as you like.  My current OpenBSD box is a
Celeron 333, 128MB of RAM, ABit Mobo, 10gig HD, IBM 100MB NIC and a 2MB
Cirrus Logic PCI video card.  I don't need sound, and if I could get rid of
the video card as well then I would (it just sits there on the floor as a
server).  If you're looking for a workstation though you'll want to choose a
decent video card that works well with the version of X11 that comes with
your distro.  I know my GEForce2MX works with RedHat 7.1.

As for modems - after many hours of pain trying to get Alex Charret's
internal modem working with him 2 years ago, I cannot vouch for external
modems highly enough :-)  I have a Diamond SupraExpress 56E Pro and it works
lovely.  Just make sure though that if you are using an external modem that
you have a decent (modern) UART on the serial port.  If you have anything
other than a 16550A UART you probably won't get 56k out of the modem.

J.

--
Jon Still                               E-mail: jon@xxxxxxxxxxx
System Administrator                    Web:    http://www.tertial.org/
tertial.org                             Tel:    +44 (0)7977 066087

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:owner-list@xxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf
> Of Paul Hewson
> Sent: 20 July 2001 09:38
> To: list@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [LUG] Hardware
>
>
> Hello,
>
> I'm after recommendations as to where to get Linux friendly
> hardware.   I am
> interested either in a laptop or a cheap / secondhand desktop.
> The computer
> is for use at work hence the illogicality.
>
> My home PC has a Winmodem so I'd rather not repeat that mistake
> and the laptop
> howto makes for scary reading.   This is a heavily begrudged
> purchase as I
> can't get either a decent database or a decent GIS at work.
> Studying spare
> time means I can't carry on taking work home either so I thought
> I'd think
> about replicating my home set up as far as possible.
>
> Thank
>
> Paul
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> Paul Hewson, Postgraduate Statistics Student (part-time)
> School of Mathematical Sciences, Laver Building,
> University of Exeter, North Park Road, EXETER  EX4 4QE, U.K.
>
> tel:   +44 1392 382773 fax: +44 1392 382135
> email: P.J.Hewson@xxxxxxxxxxxx
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
>
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