LETTER OF THE MONTH
Linux hardware
I have been trying to buy/build a new PC. I investigated two suppliers and found that, for all the models I checked, under “OS supported” they both quoted only Windows 10. I queried this with one of them, and received the reply that “Linux has had a lot of problems recently with new hardware.” I then looked at motherboard specs, and got essentially the same message; under “OS supported” they listed only Windows 10.
I was particularly interested in an ASUS motherboard, and on their website they listed “drivers and tools” for Windows 10, Windows 7 and Other. Under the Other heading you could download software for the BIOS, Utilities and SATA: for Windows 7/10 you could in addition download software for Audio, LAN and Chipset. This implies you can sort-of run Linux if you know how to set it up, but not use all the features of the hardware.
Is it true that most recent hardware is not designed for Linux. Can I avoid having to go back to using Windows? I have installed Mint on three PCS that previously ran on XP, Vista and Windows 7 with virtually no problems. G Tedbury
Neil says…
Sounds like we need to run another Build a Linux PC feature. “Linux has had a lot of problems recently with new hardware” is nonsense and sounds like they’re fobbing you off. For cost reasons they don’t want to support Linux – testing validation, user support etc. doesn’t come free.
If you’re after an off-the-shelf solution visit https://junocomputers.com in the UK or https://system76.com/desktops in the US. If you’re happy with no support Lenovo systems continue to get Ubuntu certification https://certification. ubuntu.com/make/lenovo with a mix of laptops and desktops. Dell has official support for Ubuntu on a few systems.
If you want to self-build, as a sweeping statement Intel and AMD hardware supports Linux out of the box. The concern should be the motherboard – check www.linuxcompatible.org for some sort of compatibility – check the North Bridge and any South Bridge are Intel/ AMD branded, the audio, LAN, Wi-fi, I/O and additional USB I/O have Linux support. We spotted a VIA VL805 chipset being used to provide additional USB 3.0 ports on one motherboard. A quick Google reveals it has Linux kernel support. The audio codec was listed as VIA Vinyl VT2021, with no mention of Linux support online. But rev 2.0 of the motherboard used Realtek ALC892 audio that does mention Linux support.