Linux hardware compatibility

[tw4211]

Hi, i'm relataively new to linux - a long time mac user, and i am building my first computer. i plan to run a distribution of linux on it, probably debian, and i'm wondering if there are any hardware compatibility issues i should be aware of? For example, will any internal IDE optical drives work with linux. are they not os dependant?

any help much appreciated, thomas

[daark.child]

As far as I know, optical drives are not OS dependent, so yours should work fine with Debian.

[techieMoe]

Hi, i'm relataively new to linux - a long time mac user, and i am building my first computer. i plan to run a distribution of linux on it, probably debian, and i'm wondering if there are any hardware compatibility issues i should be aware of? For example, will any internal IDE optical drives work with linux. are they not os dependant?

any help much appreciated, thomas

With a new computer (assuming you're using new components) you shouldn't run into any issues, but there are a few things to keep in mind.

1. 3D video hardware - Nvidia and ATI both have native Linux drivers but Nvidia's have always seemed to install and work better for me.

2. RAID - Desktop users do not need any type of RAID setup for their harddrives. This is a server feature that some higher-end motherboard manufacturers like to include as a "Gee whiz!" feature but it just leads to trouble. Avoid it if possible.

3. Serial ATA (SATA) - harddrives will work just fine in Linux but I'm not sure about SATA disk drives (CD/DVD ROMs). I'd go for regular old IDE for those.

4. Wireless network - Most major chipsets will either work using madwifi or using ndiswrapper. Atheros and Broadcom are pretty well supported chipsets; one is native, the other requires ndiswrapper.

[tw4211]

Great, thanks - some stores are very ambiguous on the matter, but thats all cleared up now

Thanks,

tw