[Fenrir190]

Hi all, I plan on building a computer, probably from scratch, and I'd like to install linux with little to no hardware incompatibilities. Any suggestions on what brands to use?

 

[sobeit]

brand of linux? or brand of hardware? Generally most hardware will work. May have some issue with printers and wifi cards/adaptors, webcams, and other external devices but otherwise, you should not have any issues with general components.

If you have never ran linux, I would suggest ubuntu since it has larger support base than most other linux distros since it is the most popular.

 

[justinal64]

i agree im a linux noob myself but ive been running ubuntu for 2 months on my laptop with little to no problems

 

[Rich-M]

From my limited experience Linux loves Intel so I would be sure to use an Intel ethernet card and if onboard video Intel video card.
Again Linux works more consistently with Intel cpu's and chipsets.

 

[hal8000]

I would recommend an Intel Processor and Motherboard that has an Intel Chipset.
If you need graphics acceleration then Nvidia or ATI, (Nvidia has the better support
but ATI is catching up).



Before buying anything check the Linux Hardware Compatibility List, there's safety in numbers so any hardware listed has been tried and has a rating of users experience:

http://linuxhcl.com/

 

[gary987]

I'd avoid ATI like the plague!! ATI does not support their products long. (This also is true in windows) The next time you go to update your Xorg server, you may no longer be able to use your ATI card.

I have old computers 8 years+ and the nvidia embedded card still work with modern linux distros. Still have hardware acceleration.

Nvidia support is far superior than ATI now. 5 years ago I would have recommend ATI but not anymore.

I mostly own AMD CPUS computers with NVIDIA videocards. They alll run fine on linux. My Intel netbook runs fine too. Amd cpus, better bang for my $$.

 

[hal8000]

I'd avoid ATI like the plague!! ATI does not support their products long. (This also is true in windows) The next time you go to update your Xorg server, you may no longer be able to use your ATI card.

I have old computers 8 years+ and the nvidia embedded card still work with modern linux distros. Still have hardware acceleration.

Nvidia support is far superior than ATI now. 5 years ago I would have recommend ATI but not anymore.

I mostly own AMD CPUS computers with NVIDIA videocards. They alll run fine on linux. My Intel netbook runs fine too. Amd cpus, better bang for my $$.

You are entitled to your opinion, but the next replacement for the X window system will be Wayland. This will be used on the next Ubuntu version, but not necessarily all linux distributions.
There is kernel support for both ATI and Nvidia drivers in the 2.6.38 so ATI will not be outdated. Currently their is no proprietary support from either ATI or NVidia, but as usually happens in the linux world this will change.



The problem with AMD CPU's is the AMD supporting chipset, so the best advice is to look on the linux HCL before buying, though with each kernel realease more and more hardware is supported.