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Opinions on Linux OEMs?
bradburn
asks: "I'm in the market for buying
a new computer and I want a machine with
Linux and have it properly configured.
I'm thinking about buying a computer from
either Penguin Computing or VAresearch but
I've not seen any reviews on them. Has
anybody had problems with them? How easy
are they to deal with? Are there other
companies which preload linux I should
consider looking into?" Whoa! A whole
barrel full of questions? Anyone care to
answer?
I bought a personal screamer from them, and my company bought one too. No problems with either. And I compared my price with a similar Compaq box, running NT of course, and mine was $1500 cheaper near as I could tell. Probably a lot of that is the Billy Tax, but it was close enough to reassure myself that VAResearch didn't lose much on economy of scale.
--
Infuriate left and right
www.linux-hw.com
i've never actually purchased from them yet, but they have given back to the community through booth sponsorships and such. they are geared alot more to the home power-user than varesearch(which i thought would be more appealing to slapdashers) which focuses for the most part on businesses. They sell alpha workstations at reasonable prices too. I definately recommend at least having a look at their website(which even looks nice), as they seem like the perfect solution to having to pay inexorbiant amounts for a preconfigured linux box.
My only gripe is that they don't sell AMD based systems, oh well my next computer will be from them anyway
They've been selling preconfigured linux systems for some BIG beowulf systems.
their prices seem a bit more reasonable than say VAreserach.
...is an excellent source for server-size hardware for Linux. Their selection is a little limited and a bit pricey (I'd love to see quad SMP Pro 200s... Better more CPUs than bigger ones, I say!)
Their support, I hear, is outstanding. I wouldn't know, I've never needed to call them. It just works.
Are there any companies besides VA shipping them with some linux preinstalled? Somewhere in to $1500-$2500 range?
... buying a Netwinder ? These machine look quite good, are reasonnably priced and offer great hack potential (2 Enet port, video in/out, telephone jack, etc.) The only problem I see is that the ARM platform is limited in OS support. But if you are running Linux exclusively, that is not a problem.
:wq
We will preinstall Linux if you want (Idea Computers Inc.) . You can even specify the distrobution. We don't have a real website yet but if you send an e-mail with what you want to sales@ideacomputrs.com we can get you a price. Oh, and we won't rip you off on shipping. heh
;)
Geeze, I hope I didn't do a bad thing by posting this. Oh well, whats done is done.
Lee
There are many companies pre-loading servers now.
I would see the importance in support. Who ever gives good support, would be where I go. There is a company called Pacific Image that also configures linux servers. They even use whichever distribution you prefer. I have purchased a slackware system from them, but mainly because these guys are local. There on the web too, at http://www.pacificimage.net
James