OS Hardware Newbie Question

[JLB500]

Hey all
I want to try out Linux and I dont know anything about it.. Im planning on buying a nice big hard drive and buying a few different distros (SuSe, RedHat, Mandrake- and BeOS)
Anyway, like I say- I know nothing about Linux, I've always used Windows.
Is there some windows-compatible hardware thats not compatible with Linux or BeOS?

Thats all for now... thanks alot

[ken257]

Most hardware does work in Linux but there is some that is better then others. For example NVidia GF2 cards provide open gl support and result in some awesome gameing in Linux.

What hardware do you have then we can better tell you what is good or no good?

For the Linux distro I recomend SuSE 7.2 and you are makeing the right choice to buy it! The boxed version comes with great manuals for newbies as well as probably all the software you will ever need :D

Be is nice but the problem is that there is not enough software to make it any more then a toy.

[JLB500]

Well, actually I was planning on building a system from scratch so I figured Id find out if there was any hardware to aviod. Im thinking about AMD CPU, Nvidia GeForce 3, Not sure DVD Drive or CDRW drive... havent figured everything out just looking for what to stay away from like I say.

Ya. Im buying the box no doubt simply becuase I would have no idea where to start w/o em =)

Thanks alot for the help

[ken257]

For now you may want to stay with a GF2. A friend of mine bought a GF3 and the latest drivers on NVidia's site don't work with it I am sure they will fix it but for now it looks to be a no go. I use a GF2 Ultra and a GF2 MX, both work great.
For the sound card I have had great luck with the sblives I haven't tried the newer 5.1 live card in Linux yet so it's safest to go with the standard live. Almost any nic will be supported and if you need a modem it is best to get a real hardware modem. Some Winmodems will work but you will have to check and see about which ones are ok.
CDRW drives work great in Linux I use a Plextor 16x IDE drive. There is even a version of Fireburner for Linux this is one sweet app. DVD drives do work for reading data but as of yet there is no good way of playing dvd movies on linux. I don't know of any players for linux maybe somebody else has a solution?

[JLB500]

I was planning to go all out on the sound card: SB Live Platinum 5.1
everything else sounds great
thanks alot for the help