[plug] SME PC hardware linux supplier?

[Bret Busby]

On Wed, 10 Nov 2004, Senectus . wrote:

> 
> Its not a distro I'm after, in fact its a pretty decent chance that
> the customer that wants it will wipe it and put their own distro on
> it. But they want is an INTEL pc vendor with a good name and longevity
> to supply linux supported PC's.
> 
> 

Methinks that the content of my signature quotation, is applicable here.

This is a bit different to what was asked in the message that was the 
start of the thread.

If you go to www.mcgtech.com.au, and look at box systems, or complete 
systems, you may find what you seek.

We have one of our computers that was bought from MCG, that has run RH 
Linux (when RH supported their Linux), and Debian Linux, without any 
problems.

It should be easy enough for you to go to a prospective supplier, with a 
Knoppix CD (or, now, I believe, Mandrake has an equivalent CD, named 
Mandrake Mobile or something similar), and easily find whether a 
computer is sufficiently Linux compatible. You should be easily able to 
buy a system without an OS. MCG supplies systems with or without an OS.

If your client is unlikely to want to retain a pre-installed Linux 
distribution, then what is the point in having a pre-installed Linux 
system? You may as well have OS/2 pre-installed, as it would appear to 
be equally relevant.

And, all this discussion about Intel (or Intel compatible based systems) 
being unreliable, or not durable, is a heap of rubbish. We have a Cyrix 
system (P120+), with RH Linux 6. installed, that has been running okay 
for years (okay, not continuously, but, I doubt that any computer in 
Armadale, without its own independent electricity supply, would be able 
to run for more than 6 months at a time, without having to be shut down 
when the electricity supply fails). And, the only problem with my NEC 
V22 powered PC XT, is that the stepper motor on the hard drive, failed 
(not bad for the only problem in 16 years), so that, when I boot that 
up, I have to kick start the HDD. But, how many of you have HDD's in 
desktop computers (as opposed to larger computers, like PDP's), that 
still run without any problems, after 16 years? Our mail server is a 
Pentium 200MMX, our firewall/gateway is a Pentium (80586) based system, 
and, the computer that I am using, is an AMD K6-2 300.

There are advantages to Mac's, and, there are disadvantages. They are 
not relevant here.

But, what is relevant, and, in the area of computing, there is the basic 
underlying principle, to which the quotation in my signature applies - 
First, define the question. State clearly, exactly that for which you 
want a solution. Otherwise, the answers and the solutions, like the 
number 42, are equally meaningless, unless the right question is asked 
in the first instance. That is what systems analysis is all about, and, 
why software development needs formalised training, to overcome decades 
of stuff-ups and resultant bad customer relations - because computing 
people did not ask the right questions, and, were unable to clearly and 
accurately define the problems that they were trying to solve.

So, I suggest that you restate your problem, to get it right, so that 
you can get a meaningful and useful solution.

-- 
Bret Busby
Armadale
West Australia
..............

"So once you do know what the question actually is,
 you'll know what the answer means."
- Deep Thought,
  Chapter 28 of 
  "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy:
  A Trilogy In Four Parts",
  written by Douglas Adams, 
  published by Pan Books, 1992 
....................................................