TTAYO


Well, you can buy a computer with a preinstalled Linux Distro. However, there are a multitude of advantages to installing it yourself. First and foremost, early on you will get the opportunity to become acquainted with a *nix environment and can customize it during installation, adding only the things you may desire or need. You won’t get that liberty if someone else installs it for you. Additionally by installing only what you want, you will be saving valuable disk space and providing yourself with important exposure to some key elements of what makes it tick. Granted, just like almost all other OS’s, there are Linux distros out there where all you do is toss in the CD, press enter a couple of times, and bingo it’s installed. But I am really thankful I didn’t learn that way, not only with Linux, but the MS OS’s as well. I’m one who is very inquisitive and wants to know how it works. Even when the new versions come out, I always do a custom install. Why? Without becoming at least somewhat familiar with it, what are you going to do during patch time, if you want to add some software, or the darn thing takes a dump?

I guess a first time install could be frustrating. However AO is packed with a multitude of step-by-step instructions on how to install many different OS’s. So you don’t have to go it alone.

So here’s some Linux Hardware Compatibility Lists that you can use check to see if your existing hardware can be used with a Linux OS if you decided to go that way.

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/

http://www.linux-mandrake.com/en/fhard.php3

http://www.linux.org/hardware/

http://cdb.suse.de/


Cheers