[H-GEN] Buying a new Linux Box

[Peter Robinson]

Anthony Irwin wrote:
> [ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and     ]
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>
> Ivan Miljenovic wrote:
>
>> Anyway, I've been using Gentoo Linux as my main OS on my laptop since
>> about July last year, and I'm wanting to get myself a desktop now so I
>> have something with a bit more "grunt" (so that I can play with
>> Compiz/Beryl, etc.).  Are there any computer stores in Brisbane that
>> are "Linux-Friendly", i.e. they will build a system that only uses
>> hardware that has Linux drivers?  Southside is preferred...
>>
>
> Hi,
>
> I am not sure about Linux friendly computer stores but you should be 
> able to take a live cd and try it in a computer you are thinking about 
> buying if you are getting the same as a display computer.
>
> As for graphics cards I believe that nvidia are still the best last 
> time I checked the ati drivers where still buggy (is that still the 
> case?).
>
> Your laptop may be able to handle beryl fine. I have a laptop with an 
> Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 card in it and beryl works 
> flawlessly.
>
> Try the following:
>
> $ glxinfo | grep direct
> direct rendering: Yes
>
> If direct rendering says yes then beryl will work fine. You will need 
> to compile xorg to have aiglx support there should be a gentoo wiki 
> page on it that will tell you what you need to do.
>
> Unless you want to do so stuff with heavy duty opengl or graphics like 
> games or something similar then you should not need a beefier graphics 
> card.
>
> Kind Regards,
> Anthony Irwin
>

I recently bought a new desktop from Dell - I installed Ubuntu - worked 
OK out of the box except the graphics card didn't work as well as it 
should - glxgears was crap. However, a bit of google'ing and installing 
the new ATI driver fixed the problem.

I ordered on-line and there is a button you can press that says you want 
to talk with someone about the machine of interest. I did that and asked 
about Linux support and the response was that it should all work with 
reasonably new versions of the kernel (but you will have to install it 
yourself).

Worth doing this because, although I was just wanting to confirm it was 
Linux compatible, the person I was talking to assumed I was just generally
interested and so offered a free printer/scanner/fax machine from Dell 
for free :)

Pity it was not Linux compatible :( - no drivers for it (yet).

I also got ITEE to upgrade from Vista to XP  (not that I use it you 
understand).

Peter Robinson