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Plenty of people have mentioned the Raspberry Pi and Arduino...plenty of options in the $25 - $100 range.

This poster agrees with them, but what about those that do NOT want to build hardware, they just want to explore Linux and software....this post is for you. Read on, and note, while the starting prices of their hardware starts out low, by the time you max it out with memory, disk drives, power supplies, better Graphics cards, multiple other stuff, the price will rise. In other words, do not expect this hardware to be the cheapest, just know that it will work with an distro of Linux out of the box, period! And to be honest, they are often not much more when configured similar to what you have in the big box store...just let them know which Distro of Linux you want on it, and they will configure it for you. You spend your time learning Linux, not messing with hardware and device drivers.

ZaReason is your Answer!

ZaReason has been active in the open source community since their founding days and all of their hardware is built with open source in mind. No UEFI BS chips on any of their hardware. No need to purchase a Windows OS in order to wipe Windows and install a Linux Distro.

UEFI, Unified Extensible Firmware Interface was forced on Vendors by Microsoft a long time ago. Originally they use to say it would make your computer more secure, however when you consider that the exploits it was protecting your computer against required someone to have the keys to your home, be inside, with your Linux password in order to use those exploits, well UEFI is a waste of time and is just more Vendor Lock-In by Microsoft.

First encountered the ZaReason owners at SCaLE in Los Angeles / Pasadena, California, when it was held at the hotels near LAX, now they hold it in Pasadena. If you are into Open source and have not been to SCaLE you should check it out. The things you can learn about, often from the creator is great, especially for the price. Recommend you book a room a head and stay in the hotel where the conference is hosted...but I digress.

Most of ZaReason's hardware starts in the $400 - $600 dollar range, but will quickly go up when you start adding their current maximum memory (32GB RAM) and if you add 6TB hard drives, etc.... When Windows refused to allow their Operating System to address above 16GB of RAM memory, ZaReason was putting laptops together with that amount of RAM and it was all usable. One of their laptop models had the largest screen on the market at the time, 16.3 (Bright, anti-glare 17.3" LED backlit display @ 1920x1080 pixels) versus 15" from other manufacturers.

Want to create a TV wall on a 65" or larger TV in your house, Linux will let you do it, there is software that has to be configured / built in with the kernel that will let you control the processors independently of each other, say let your 2 cores control one screen, another core control another, two other cores control yet another screen, etc... and divide your 65" TV into a TV Wall of say 3 X 3 or 4 X 4 monitors. Let the internet stream music on one screen, news on a couple of others, weather on another, you can program on four of the others and show social media on yet other screens of your TV Wall....I plan to do this in the next couple of years...software was available back in 2010 or before.

Boy will I cut the cord....can't wait and will never look back...if only I had Google Fiber in my area!

Full disclosure, I do not work at the company, but have purchased two laptops, a desktop/ser

The So Cal Linux Expo and Texas Linux Fest both use scalereg for attendee + staff registration. It can probably be customized to meet your needs without too much effort. (Note, I'm the primary scalereg author.)

SCALE - http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/

SCALE.

If you have the money to spend and do not want to build your own Linux media server (plan to do this with my older ZaReason Breeze 4220 PC), you could checkout ZaReason's product offerings. They build Linux boxes, you tell them what Linux distro you want on them.

ZaReason's small footprint media server, MediaBox 5440 (quad core power in a little bitty living space) or if you have room for a bigger box and are interested in 4 hot swappable sata bays, the Breeze Server 5880 looks like a very nice server.

Of course any Linux server can be made into a media server and any Linux PC can be turned into your personal DVR and a Linux server. Once you start using a Linux box this way, you will not want to 'stream' content over the internet, especially if you are a cable internet subscriber. Especially with a new LG 60 inch LED TV 1080p 300hz (Monitor wall anyone?) costing under $800! Just plug into your Linux PC and enjoy watching what you download!

Remember that 100% of Cable Internet providers throttle their bandwidth, meaning DSL is usually faster than their throttled cable bandwidth promises. DSL is usually cheaper too! The cable company's marketing bandwidth claims are lies based on this throttling!

(Run DD-WRT on a supported device to see your actual bandwidth in real time after the speed test ends, cable users will be shocked and disgusted!

A promise of 20MB/4MB gets throttled to less than 101Kb/20Kb in my experience and I guestimate you need at least 230Kb upstream for the stuttering to stop and they throttle the upstream to less than 20Kbs if you have the means to see it, granted other factors apply) This is why most of us download something before we watch it, forget about streaming over the Internet!

And with the recent net neutrality loss in the DC courts (January 14, 2014), this is going to become more of a problem for those of us wishing to download and stream content. It's going to get ugly folks!

I highly recommend Firefox with the DownloadHelper Plugin in order to download content from the Internet. Don't worry about the proprietary Windows formatted content, there are always other options, usually on the same download site. My friends and I refuse to purchase music that can not be played on any of our Linux devices (mp3, handheld, tablet, laptop, PC, server). If everyone did this, proprietary formats would be useless. And I pay for some content, just not proprietary formatted content. Even in the days of VCRs, I did not want to own every movie that I watched, only the few that I really loved, thus using a PC like a VCR, as in DVR, simply is the way we have always been doing things. If a TV/Cable Series or Movie is that good, I go buy it, usually after multiple seasons our out. Got all 10 Seasons of Stargate for under $300 at Fry's Electronics in CA, think I paid under $199, but its been awhile. Bought DVR version of "Dave" too, wish all our presidents were like Dave! Love that movie.

You can pretty much download anything down to a Linux PC and then stream it from there 'locally' on your network. This basically uses your harddrive like your own personal DVR box, no bandwidth throttling by cable companies to cause your streaming to stutter or stop. And you simply erase it after you watch it, just like we did with VCR tape recorders back in the day.

Full Disclosure, I do not work for ZaReason, just met the owners at SCaLE in Los Angeles a few years back (SCaLE 7x in 2008 I believe) and was very impressed with them, their company and their products. Became a customer i

Right on the point of the matter. The FUD, backstabbing, lack of crdibility, etc... Yes you can save an S-load of money by switching from Windows to Linux.

When attending SCALE SCALE12x in Los Angeles iover the years, I have talked to multiple Systems Admins that have successfully scaled Linux well above 10,000 desktops with no problem that could not be worked around and overcome. I did not have to go to SCALE to learn that Linux would scale, but it was nice to hear all the same.

While larger companies (and government agencies) can save millions even small companies can save significant dollars. In one of the many positive posts about this that have been rated down to zero or negative 1, one poster stated their small company/site (56 employee office) will realize over $22,000 per year in savings. My guess is they would save even more if they looked at everything and not just licensing. So many other factors figure in to the total cost of ownership for the company.

I just finished a year long contract at a worldwide company where we were supporting multiple Java Apps + Linux in the Cloud. One of the individuals that was responsible for updating 2,000 ~ 4,000 of their windows PCs (that was at only one site in one city in one state, there were 14 sites in that state, no I will not tell you the company's name, so don't ask as I have no wish to embarrass them) lost his job as the company said it was no longer cost effective to update all the Windows PCs at the site. (I started in the DP / IT field in 1979 and when the auto update crap started, many of us said that this would eventually happen.) If this has happened at other companies, I would not be surprised.

And as other posters have pointed out, it is much easier to secure Linux than Windows. Those that do not believe it, have not done it.

My biggest pet peeve with Windows 8 is the proprietary chips provided by the manufacturers, on Microsoft's instructions, that force one to obtain a valid MS Windows License even to install Linux on that proprietary hardware. I like donating old hardware to the various school programs when I am through with them. They almost always need to install Linux and are not interested in extra expense of a Windows license just to install Linux. Of course we can avoid these proprietary chipsets by only buying hardware from Linux vendors like ZaReason, System76 or others. As a copy of Windows can be purchased for those wanting to run Windows and when that version of Windows is no longer supported, that hardware can be re-purposed utilizing one of the many distros of Linux, instead of being thrown in the city dump. Just seems smart to me.

I am sure there are multiple websites / blog posts documenting many positive results from switching from Microsoft Windows to Linux. Please share them if you read this as I am most certainly interested in seeing them. I am sure Munich is not the only proof out there!

Note / Full Disclosure: I have a Windows 7 box for testing purposes and used a MacBook Pro in my last position, its a great laptop, that I did not want to like, but did, however my preference will always be Linux. Since I do not utilize touch on my desktop, servers, laptops or netbooks, I have moved away from Ubuntu's unity toward other distros of Linux, primarily Debian or CentOS, however have an interest in Arch and a few other low memory footprint Linux distros. I understand how Nokia blew it by moving away from the N800 and N900 Linux handhelds. Nor am I frightened by Android.

I started with DOS 2.0 before Windows was an app and my bias against windows is well earned, based solely on first hand experience. With over 30 years of various problems caused by that operating system and that company. While I almost got fired because of the General

Right on the point of the matter. The FUD, backstabbing, lack of crdibility, etc... Yes you can save an S-load of money by switching from Windows to Linux.

When attending SCALE SCALE12x in Los Angeles iover the years, I have talked to multiple Systems Admins that have successfully scaled Linux well above 10,000 desktops with no problem that could not be worked around and overcome. I did not have to go to SCALE to learn that Linux would scale, but it was nice to hear all the same.

While larger companies (and government agencies) can save millions even small companies can save significant dollars. In one of the many positive posts about this that have been rated down to zero or negative 1, one poster stated their small company/site (56 employee office) will realize over $22,000 per year in savings. My guess is they would save even more if they looked at everything and not just licensing. So many other factors figure in to the total cost of ownership for the company.

I just finished a year long contract at a worldwide company where we were supporting multiple Java Apps + Linux in the Cloud. One of the individuals that was responsible for updating 2,000 ~ 4,000 of their windows PCs (that was at only one site in one city in one state, there were 14 sites in that state, no I will not tell you the company's name, so don't ask as I have no wish to embarrass them) lost his job as the company said it was no longer cost effective to update all the Windows PCs at the site. (I started in the DP / IT field in 1979 and when the auto update crap started, many of us said that this would eventually happen.) If this has happened at other companies, I would not be surprised.

And as other posters have pointed out, it is much easier to secure Linux than Windows. Those that do not believe it, have not done it.

My biggest pet peeve with Windows 8 is the proprietary chips provided by the manufacturers, on Microsoft's instructions, that force one to obtain a valid MS Windows License even to install Linux on that proprietary hardware. I like donating old hardware to the various school programs when I am through with them. They almost always need to install Linux and are not interested in extra expense of a Windows license just to install Linux. Of course we can avoid these proprietary chipsets by only buying hardware from Linux vendors like ZaReason, System76 or others. As a copy of Windows can be purchased for those wanting to run Windows and when that version of Windows is no longer supported, that hardware can be re-purposed utilizing one of the many distros of Linux, instead of being thrown in the city dump. Just seems smart to me.

I am sure there are multiple websites / blog posts documenting many positive results from switching from Microsoft Windows to Linux. Please share them if you read this as I am most certainly interested in seeing them. I am sure Munich is not the only proof out there!

Note / Full Disclosure: I have a Windows 7 box for testing purposes and used a MacBook Pro in my last position, its a great laptop, that I did not want to like, but did, however my preference will always be Linux. Since I do not utilize touch on my desktop, servers, laptops or netbooks, I have moved away from Ubuntu's unity toward other distros of Linux, primarily Debian or CentOS, however have an interest in Arch and a few other low memory footprint Linux distros. I understand how Nokia blew it by moving away from the N800 and N900 Linux handhelds. Nor am I frightened by Android.

I started with DOS 2.0 before Windows was an app and my bias against windows is well earned, based solely on first hand experience. With over 30 years of various problems caused by that operating system and that company. While I almost got fired because of the General

Rob Spectre of Boxee said during his SCALE 9x presentation last weekend, that regular Hulu is not available because Hulu only licenses Hulu-Plus for embedded devices like Boxee and internet enabled TV's. Hulu-Plus is available for Boxee (subscription required).

Gaming on a PC is becoming more cumbersome every day with useless DRM, and less relevant every day with half-ass console ports. The gaming industry has always been a niche market, and PC gaming is even a smaller niche. While some companies have been very successful in this market, the future of it is dead.

Insightful, but not quite right. It is true as you say that Microsoft's PC gaming hegemony has no future, however Microsoft has inadvertently set the stage for the emergence of a viable open content creation industry. See my upcoming talk at Scale 9x, and see Sintel.

If Microsoft wanted to improve the status of PC gaming, they would produce a new XBOX with an x64 processor in it.

If Microsoft truly wanted to improve the status of PC gaming it would just go away and die immediately. Of course Microsoft has no intention of doing that so its dead hand on the gaming industry will continue to hold things back for some time yet. Fortunately, there is no longer anything Microsoft can do to prevent the emergence of an independent content creation industry on platforms it does not control. See my upcoming talk at Scale 9x

Full 3D support for a better 3D desktop experience with Compiz or Beryl for only $349; Limbo 3550 desktop.

For only $299, get the Limbo 2550A desktop. They have laptops and more.

For $699, get the Homebox 4.

I met the entire family at SCALE 7x, held every February in Los Angeles (reasonably priced at $75 for the tradeshow, beats $600 to $1,400 which is the cost of most other tradeshows), they traveled from their home in Colorado to attend. Great people who stand behind their products. All their products come with a 1 year warranty.

For 2010, the premier Open Source Community conference in the United States, will return to the Westin LAX Hotel. SCALE 8x will be February 19th-21st, 2010

For netbooks, they are lite and weigh next to nothing, less than 2 lbs, which means very cheap shipping costs. So get the pre-installed with Linux netbooks from an online vendor. Use Pricegrabber, I can recommend NewEgg as a reputable vendor. Just be sure of the model you are ordering. The Asus Eee PC 901 has a webcam, the Asus Eee PC 901 Surf does NOT! So order the correct model and you will NOT have issues. You can read the reviews posted on the site to find a good vendor at a reasonable price.

I have found replacement software products, most superior to Microsoft, for everything I was using over the last 20 years. If I had to use a MS-Operating-specific-application I would try first to run it in its own virtual machine or WINE. But the reality is there are alternatives for everything! And you will discover as most of us have, that the incompatibilities are because of Microsoft. Stupid things like not rendering the open document format standards correctly in Microsoft Word and dumb things like that. Fortunately for every issue that I have encountered I have been able to find help in the may Linux support forums online and resolve them. When I encounter these lame FUD issues it just makes Microsoft more loathsome to me. I use to like Microsoft, not any more, its been too many years of too many artificial and unnecessary hassles. They come across as even more juvenial when they deny the problem exists and you can repeat it. Years later you learn that they knew about the problem, but did not have a fix, so they just go into denial mode. No they lost my TRUST! When you start to discover the real issues, start to see through their FUD, you will want to use them less and less as many of us do. Today that is possible. And in this economy, we need to cut corners and save money every where that we can.

Remember if you get a system with Linux preinstalled, it just works. You avoid all the proprietary driver crap and vendor LOCK IN shenanigans associated with other proprietary vendors. If WiFi is important to you, get it pre-installed and it will just work. Whatever you need, get it pre-installed from the vendor to avoid unnecessary hassles.

With the Asus Eee netbook PC WiFi, Ethernet, Webcam, Sound, Video, USB plug and play, all just worked out of the box. It was fantastic! And when the Coreboot project officially releases, you will be able to buy a Linux system based on Coreboot compatible products which will make us not dependent on the BIOS vendors who are not always Linux friendly with comp

Full 3D support for a better 3D desktop experience with Compiz or Beryl for only $349; Limbo 3550 desktop.

For only $299, get the Limbo 2550A desktop. They have laptops and more.

For $699, get the Homebox 4.

I met the entire family at SCALE 7x, held every February in Los Angeles (reasonably priced at $75 for the tradeshow, beats $600 to $1,400 which is the cost of most other tradeshows), they traveled from their home in Colorado to attend. Great people who stand behind their products. All their products come with a 1 year warranty.

For 2010, the premier Open Source Community conference in the United States, will return to the Westin LAX Hotel. SCALE 8x will be February 19th-21st, 2010

For netbooks, they are lite and weigh next to nothing, less than 2 lbs, which means very cheap shipping costs. So get the pre-installed with Linux netbooks from an online vendor. Use Pricegrabber, I can recommend NewEgg as a reputable vendor. Just be sure of the model you are ordering. The Asus Eee PC 901 has a webcam, the Asus Eee PC 901 Surf does NOT! So order the correct model and you will NOT have issues. You can read the reviews posted on the site to find a good vendor at a reasonable price.

I have found replacement software products, most superior to Microsoft, for everything I was using over the last 20 years. If I had to use a MS-Operating-specific-application I would try first to run it in its own virtual machine or WINE. But the reality is there are alternatives for everything! And you will discover as most of us have, that the incompatibilities are because of Microsoft. Stupid things like not rendering the open document format standards correctly in Microsoft Word and dumb things like that. Fortunately for every issue that I have encountered I have been able to find help in the may Linux support forums online and resolve them. When I encounter these lame FUD issues it just makes Microsoft more loathsome to me. I use to like Microsoft, not any more, its been too many years of too many artificial and unnecessary hassles. They come across as even more juvenial when they deny the problem exists and you can repeat it. Years later you learn that they knew about the problem, but did not have a fix, so they just go into denial mode. No they lost my TRUST! When you start to discover the real issues, start to see through their FUD, you will want to use them less and less as many of us do. Today that is possible. And in this economy, we need to cut corners and save money every where that we can.

Remember if you get a system with Linux preinstalled, it just works. You avoid all the proprietary driver crap and vendor LOCK IN shenanigans associated with other proprietary vendors. If WiFi is important to you, get it pre-installed and it will just work. Whatever you need, get it pre-installed from the vendor to avoid unnecessary hassles.

With the Asus Eee netbook PC WiFi, Ethernet, Webcam, Sound, Video, USB plug and play, all just worked out of the box. It was fantastic! And when the Coreboot project officially releases, you will be able to buy a Linux system based on Coreboot compatible products which will make us not dependent on the BIOS vendors who are not always Linux friendly with comp

The Southern California Linux Expo is a great traing event for Linux and OSS platforms.

http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale5x/speakers/spe akers_phillips.php

I'm giving a talk at the Southern California Linux Expo this weekend, and it will be done on my wife's Mac using Keynote.
I actually mocked the slides up in MagicPoint, but I just don't trust my linux laptop to play well with the VGA port and whatever projecter they might have. The Keynote slides look amazing, and I know her Mac will just work with the display they give me. I sometimes wonder if that was Apple's intention in making Keynote so good. Every presentation with it is basically a MacOS commercial.

Alex will be speaking on the first day of the 5th annual Southern California Linux Expo which will be taking place February 9th and 10th. Alex will be speaking about how to bridge the gap between Windows and Open Source using ReactOS. If you use the promotional code SLASH, you will receive a 40% discount off a full priced ticket.

Dell is Exhibiting at the 2007 Southern California Linux Expo on Feb 9-11, 2007 http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale5x/

FreeBSD will have a booth on the expo floor of the 2007 Southern Califrornia Linux Expo in Los Angeles, CA. Feb 9-11, 2007
Additionally FreeBSD developers will be presenting in the seminar tracks.

Sun will be exhibting and speaking at SCALE 5x this February in Los Angeles.

Google is a silver sponsor of SCALE 5x. They will be onsite, recruiting on the expo floor. Additionally, they will have 3 speakers on open-source topics.

KDE will be exhibiting at SCALE 5x in Los Angeles next monh.
SCALE will be held on Feb 9-11, 2007 at the LAX Westin, in Los Angeles CA.

KDE will be exhibiting at SCALE 5x in Los Angeles next monh.
SCALE will be held on Feb 9-11, 2007 at the LAX Westin, in Los Angeles CA.

Google will be sponsoring SCALE 5x in Feb 2007 at the LAX Westin.

Ubuntu reps will be speaking and exhibiting at SCALE 5x in Los Angeles in Feb 2007.

Matt Ingenthron of Sun will be speaking at SCALE about Sun's new open-source java implementations. SCALE 5x will be Feb 10-11, 2007 at the LAX Westin, in Los Angeles.

Fedora will be exhibiting at SCALE 5x, the 2007 Southern California Linux Expo on Feb 10-11, 2007.

Novell to Exhibit at SCALE 5x in Feb 2007. SCALE will be in Los Angeles on Feb 10-11, 2007.

Novell will be exhibiting at SCALE 5x in Los Angeles on Feb 10-11, 2007. SCALE will have over 40 seminars and 70 exhibitors on Linux and Open Source software.

Novell will be exhibiting at SCALE 5x in LA on Feb 10-11, 2007.

Novell will be exhibiting and speaking at SCALE 5x on Feb 10-11.

Uh you got that link wrong its http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/scale5x/exhibitions. php

Exhibitor list is avaialble at socallinuxexpo.org.

TrollTech the company that develops QT will be at SCALE 5x this February 10-11 in Los Angeles.

This is an interesting piece of news considering the announcement from SCALE this morning. SCALE 5x will be hosting the first Open Source Health Care Summit. Maybe we should invite the Kaiser IT folks to attend? :)

This is an interesting piece of news considering the announcement from SCALE this morning. SCALE 5x will be hosting the first Open Source Health Care Summit. Maybe we should invite the Kaiser IT folks to attend? :)

Another popular community event is SCALE 5x, the 2007 Southern California Linux Expo. Our call for papers is open through November if you are interested in speaking. SCALE will be held on Feb 10-11, 2007 at the LAX Westin.

Dibona spoke on this topic at SCALE last week. Slides and audio will be up shortly. Keep an eye out on the SCALE website

Aaron Seigo, a KDE developer who just returned from the Southern California Linux Expo, was told by presenters at the Google booth that the default desktop for the version of GNU/Linux used internally by Google employees is KDE.

SGI will be exhibiting at SCALE 4x on Feb 11th and 12th 2006. In addition there will be a workshop on ODF in Government on Friday Feb 10th.

SGI will be exhibiting at SCALE 4x on Feb 11th and 12th 2006. In addition there will be a workshop on ODF in Government on Friday Feb 10th.

Wikipedia will have a booth at SCALE 4x this weekend
http://www.socallinuxexpo.org/

Novell will be exhibiting at SCALE 4x this weekend.

Peter Quinn, Susy Strubl (Sun), Doug Heintzman (IBM) and others will be speaking at a workshop on the use of OpenDocument Format in Government. The event will take place this Friday Feb 10th at the Los Angeles Airport Westin. Attendance is free. They just request you RSVP via e-mail.

Novell will be exhibiting at SCALE 4x this weekend on Feb 11-12, 2006.

You can meet the wikipedia team at SCALE in person this weekend. Wikipedia will have a booth at SCALE 4x on Feb 11-12, 2006. Use the promo code "free" for a free exhibit hall pass.

You can meet the wikipedia team at SCALE in person this weekend. Wikipedia will have a booth at SCALE 4x on Feb 11-12, 2006. Use the promo code "free" for a free exhibit hall pass.

IBM will be exhibiting at SCALE 4x. To check them out for free on the exhibit hall floor use the promo code "FREE" for a free exhibit hall only pass.

For a discounted full access pass use the promo code: "NEWSP"

Google will be exhibiting at SCALE 4x. To check them out for free on the exhibit hall floor use the promo code "FREE" for a free exhibit hall only pass.

For a discounted full access pass use the promo code: "NEWSP"

Peter Quinn will be speaking in LA on Feb 10th at the Southern California Linux Expo. There will be others from IBM, Sun and the OpenDocument Fellowship speaking as well.

Both Google and Ubuntu will be exhibiting at the Southern California Linux Expo February 11th and 12th at the Radisson hotel at Los Angeles Airport. In addition both Chris Dibona and Dan Kegal from Google will be speaking at the show.