Re: How to put together a home computer with GNU/Linux

[Jock Cooper]

Don Saklad <dsaklad@nestle.ai.mit.edu> writes:

> a. How would you put together a home computer with GNU/Linux ?...
> 
> 
> b. What manufacturers components would you look to in assembling a
>    computer with GNU/Linux ?...
> 
> 
> I've heard that the best is knoppix.

If you want to put it together yourself you need a :
1 case
1a power supply (if not included with case)
1b case fan (I think 80mm is the usual size)
2 motherboard (ATX is the usual type; refers to the form factor)
3 CPU 
3a CPU fan (sometimes included)
4 memory 
(you can often buy 4-6 bundled)
5 hard drive, floppy drive, cdrom
5a cables for these are usually included
6 video card
7 sound card (often on motherboard nowadays)
8 network card ( "        "           "   )
9 keyboard/mouse/monitor

pricewatch.com is a good way to find cheap prices;  also it's
a good way to find websites that sell computers and parts in general.

If you don't want to build it from scratch, most of the parts
sellers will preassemble and test one for you.. usually a good
deal and much less trouble.

When the computer is ready, boot a Linux CD and go from there.
You can either buy a Linux CD or download an ISO image and burn
the disk yourself..  I have used Red Hat 7 and debian, of those
I prefer debian Linux.  (Knoppix is a bootable linux CD that lets
you get into Linux without actually doing a HD install.  Which
may or may not be all that useful.)

If you want to dual boot the machine (so it can boot both Linux
and Windows) you may want something like Partition Manager to 
handle setting up the disk partitions to support this.

Sites you may find helpful:
www.tomshardware.com
www.motherboards.org
www.extremetech.com
www.linux.org
www.debian.org