Re: [Sheflug] A potential Linux user needs help to get started

[Pieter Meiring <nospam [at] sheffield.ac.uk>]

> Hello, I'm Matt and I intend to become a Linux user very shortly.  I am
> intending to buy a pc from a local shop, and I have got a list of components
> that they will assemble for me for < £2,000 including:
> 
> Abit KA-7 100 motherboard
> 256MB PC 133 memory
> Athlon 800MHz CPU
> Diamond Viper 770 ULTRA graphics
> IBM internal 45GB Deskstar 75GXP hard disk
> 
> Yamaha 8824 internal CD-RW
> Pioneer 10x internal DVD
> IDE internal 250MB Zip
> 
> Mitsubishi 19" Diamondtron Plus 51 monitor
> 
> I also plan to buy a Lexmark Optra E312 b/w laser printer and to connect
> my US Robotics 56K external modem
>
Impressive system - I wish you well to use it.

> The shop tells me that a) the only motherboards available are now 100MHz
> and b) they think that Linux distributions may not work with them, or that
> a patch or new kernel must be downloaded for Linux to work.  Does anyone
> know if either a) or b) or both are true?  And if so, how to get hold of
> a Linux version that supports the 100MHz bus speed.
> 
> Does anyone have any comments on the components proposed above?  Can it
> work?  I am intending to make the system dual boot Win98/Linux and it will
> be a standalone system for home use.
> 
AFIK, all the components you mention will work with linux. The comment about 
bus speed not working with Linux is pure FUD, I am pleased to say. Linux has 
been ported to almost every platform there is in some form or another, 
including IBM mainframes! I have run linux on Macintosh PowerPC, 386sx, 386dx, 
486, Pentium, Cyrix and AMD PCs - bus speeds from 4.77MHz to 133MHz.

Some of the very latest addon cards and gizmos may need drivers downloaded 
from the net or if they are not "ready" yet, you may need to wait a month or 
two until they are fully supported. To use USB properly, you will need to 
install an up to date development kernel but this does not apply in your case 
- any standard modern distribution will work fine.

> I am thinking of buying Suze Linux by the way.
> 
SuSe is fine - I prefer Mandrake but almost all modern distributions are fine, 
including RedHat, Storm, Definite, Debian, etc - some are just a little more 
"complete" than others and some install more easily.

Good luck and welcome aboard.

Pieter Meiring
Medical Imaging

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Sheffield Linux User's Group - http://www.sheflug.co.uk
To unsubscribe from this list send mail to
- <sheflug-request [at] vuw.ac.nz> - with the word 
 "unsubscribe" in the body of the message. 

  GNU the choice of a complete generation.