Build or buy?

[TravisG79]

Hi all!

I'm from the Terre Haute area, and fairly new to Linux. I've been around it for a long time (Rose Hulman computer nerds!) but never had it on my box.

I've got a home brew computer that I built 6 or 7 years ago, and it's currently dual booting XP Pro and Ubuntu. I feel like I'm ready to totally pull the plug and go total Ubuntu. I'm thinking this might be a good time to upgrade hardware.

I built the last computer, and have built them for friends, but I'm not sure if I want to bother building one this time. So: Do any of you know of any computers you can buy (Best Buy, Circuit City, Wally World, etc) that will "just run" Ubuntu?

I don't need it for much, just basic net surfing/email/photo storage/light photo editing stuff.

If I build, is there a list somewhere of hardware that "just works"?


Thanks!

Travis

[Girya]

Dell sells ubuntu, but I built mine with little problem and i am computer caveman. The things I researched were: wireless cards, and graphics. what i ended up using was nvidia graphics and linksys wireless (ralink?) The only problem I had was with sound, HDA Intel. but they seem to have that solved on ubuntu 7.10 and latter.

I went cheap and I think I was up and running for about $250 in about an hour using an old monitor until I could afford something nicer.

I think there is a hardware list in the forums somewhere.

[tamoneya]

order them from system76. They come preinstalled with ubuntu so you can be assured that the all the parts have drivers and are compatible.
http://system76.com/

[Dr Small]

I only build systems.
My answer? Build them..

[bshaw]

There really isn't a reason you couldn't build again if you wanted to...

You should really stick to an nVidia video card though if you want to use Compiz and Wine at the same time. As many times as I've tried to get ATI cards to work the way I want, they just don't seem to perform.

As far as buying a system pre-installed with Ubuntu, I don't really see the point - if you do a price comparison on Dell's web site, every system you build ends up costing the same as it would if you were paying to have Windows (at least last time I checked, I could be wrong now)... which in my mind kind of defeats the purpose of a "free" operating system. If you do go the Dell route, just buy something from the Outlet (http://outlet.dell.com), format the drive and install Ubuntu your self. There are TONS of documents out there on how to get Dell hardware configurations working correctly in Ubuntu.

Installing your self and figuring out how to make things work the way you want it is great because it really helps you learn the operating system in and out instead of just using it.

...Just my 2 cents.