[NTLUG:Discuss] Hardware for Linux

[Jaime Villela]

Al Wyatt writes:
 > Greetings all.
 > 
 > I'm about (within the next week) to purchase a new PC
 > that I plan to dual-boot Linux and that M$ o.s. on. 
 > My questions are as follows:

I envy you're ability to have enough money for a new PC ;-).

 > 1. Which local PC sellers have good reputations?  Are
 > any of them knowledgable about Linux and
 > compatibility?

I don't know about the local vendors but IMS seems to be in all the
computing mags.  I also have seen some fairly innexpensive systems at Sam's.

 > 2. Are any of the national (Dell/Micron/Gateway) PC
 > sellers good options for Linux?

You might be better off going with one of these guys since they have a 
reputation for good service.  The IT department at the place I used to 
work swore by Gateway.  However, chances are you probably won't find
too many people that are knowledgable about Linux.

 > 3. I can see that most all of the popular video cards
 > (like 3dfx and Nvidia) are well supported, but what
 > about audio cards?  SoundBlaster's site seems to
 > suggest their cards don't work well under Linux, and
 > they're the most popular kind of sound card out there.

AFAIK, all the SoundBlaster cards should work just fine with the
current Linux distros.  When in doubt, go to that distro's web page
and check the hardware requirements list.

 > 4. Partitioning the hard disk: IIRC, suse's distro has
 > software for re-partitioning an existing HD without
 > losing data (this would be helpful if I buy a PC with
 > the M$ o.s. already on it).  Do other distros have
 > such a utility?  Should I just buy something like
 > Partition Magic if I really want to do this?

I would recommend you get an app such as Partition Magic for this.
Chances are you will someday want to optimize your Windoze directory
and that involves some partitioning.  You probably don't want to use a 
utility that came with a Linux distro for that.  Don't get me wrong,
they may be good utilities but they probably can't do as much a
full-blown program.

 > I know these are lots of questions and I apologize if
 > I shouldn't be asking them here.  Just hoping to find
 > some helpful Linux neighbors out there.

No problem.  Another option you have is build your system.  If you are 
so inclined, ArsTechnica has some good recommendations on what to get: 
http://www.arstechnica.com 

-- 
Jaime Villela
jvillela at airmail.net