>>Matthew,
>>Thanks for this. I take it then that on your experience it's unlikely to
>>run into unsupported components -- video, sound etc. ?
Linux supports more hardware than any other operating system. I would say almost 70% of the Linux kernel is actually just drivers for hardware. You'd be surprised what Linux supports, and I have had to write very few of my own drivers. (You can download the kernel if you know C, write the driver, and compile it yourself if you know how.)
A while ago Broadcom wireless drivers and NVIDA video drivers didn't have much support on Linux, but they are fairly well supported now. You can use a wrapper to wrap a windows driver in Linux if you just can't find one and don't want to write your own.
However, all of this will be moot if you by a pre-installed system. If you get a pre-built system, then you will find everything is supported. Retailers should only sell systems with Linux that support all of the components on it.
If you want to "try it out" on a PC that wasn't pre-built you can use a live CD and run the operating system from the CD (or run off a USB drive) before installing it to the hard disk . That way you can verify everything works before even installing the OS (or never install it and always run off the USB). You can also dual boot, which means you can run Windows and Linux on the same system and just pick which one you want to run from a menu when you turn the computer on.
Matthew Kunzman
Software Engineer
Boise, ID USA
Website: http://www.mattkunzman.com
Email: matt_hew@rocketmail.com
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