I want to build my personal Linux computer from scratch. I love custom configurations and admire people who spend time to select each component carefully: CPU, SSD, case, RAM, GPU. I like Linux because I used Ubuntu at University to write C source code and Ubuntu provides the GCC compiler out of the box. It was so easy to write code, and this led me to think the Linux OSs family is designed for developers first of all. What slows down me is the fact that computer hardware doesn’t provide a full Linux compatibility. So far I was not able to find a component whose specs precisely said: “It’s compatible with Linux”. They only said: “Compatibility with Linux is not guaranteed”. I don’t like it. Of course, the web is full of people who write reviews about their hardware components’ compatibility with Linux, and I often read something like: “I had no problems, Linux seems to be fully supported”. “Seems”. Unfortunately, I am a perfectionist and “seems” is a verb I don’t like, because we can’t be sure this is true and I care about optimal performance. So I’m here to ask you: have you ever found a component whose specs say it’s compatible with Linux? If so, can you write the link of these specs on comments? In general, what do you think about this issue?
Franco Scarpa
Posted on
Are there hardware components whose specs say they’re compatible with Linux?
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Top comments (5)
No, "Seems" is generally as close as it gets. Being a community driven OS, hardware support is what someone has spent their time to add support for. Across Distros hardware support can be different as the different communities have different priorities.
There are however companies that sell pre-built machines with Linux. System76 and Dell come to mind.
Thanks for your clarification! I see. This is something I have to accept.
I think you are a bit over thinking it. If the components are new enough they are close to 100% compatible (2009 and up). I have found components which say Linux supported (even in the manual written something simular to "work on Ubuntu 16.04") and had to install near 10-15 packages just so it can work barely. (touch screen)
I see. So, you're telling me compatibility is not a problem with modern hardware. Thank you for your answer.
Certainly the manufacturers of video cards and sound cards actively thwart Linux operability. Those are the Hollywood-adjacent peripherals. At some point we should have advocated for there being a category of devices that are for passive consumption of popular culture and are of course as DRMed as a copy of Mathematica and as tamper-proof as a fine Swiss watch, while letting personal computers be general-purpose computing machines on which you can code any algorithm but on which you can't watch a DVD. But that window of opportunity is probably gone (assuming it ever existed). Even W3C has caved on EME's.