Computer manufacturers and Linux

You would be hard-pressed to find any kind of computer business in my town!!! I think I might be the only one in the county that still runs desktop pc’s.

@ljohn
I for one do not see an issue with Microsoft,Dell, HP or Google. Other than they have a much larger cash flow than I!!!

I have bought my last 3 Linux machines from Silent PC (https://silentpc.com) and have been completely satisfied. Great build quality and Linux is supported.

@ljohn
Amen!!! :innocent: :star_struck: :boom:

We may be dinosaurs. My granddaughters like dinosaurs, so I’m comfortable. Desktops are still the best way to go.

Looks like a very good company. I’ll stick with refurbished 6033 SFF boxes at under $100.

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Depends on what you want to do. If it’s about only ‘consuming content’ (reading news, watching movies, etc.), a mobile device (smart phone, tablet) fits the task quite well, and energy-efficient.
If it’s about something more complex, say ‘producing content’, then the desktop is the way to go.

There is an Australian firm which builds custom Linux Desktops and seems to be the local equivalent of Silent PC.
https://www.linuxnow.com.au/dsintro.html
They only ship in Australia. I have not personally used them but I hear good reports.

Desktops much better for

  • playing with linux installs
  • scientific calculations
  • being a server eg for storage or mail
  • expandability of hardware
  • ergonomics
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You are better off isolated from all the hi-tech hype.

I’m pretty sure in the UK you can order new Dell and Lenovo systems (laptop or desktop) with Linux pre-installed. You CANNOT get this in Australia, I’m guessing our market is just too small…

It also doesn’t bother me in the least, having to wipe Windows to install Linux myself… I bought a “newish” 2nd hand Lenovo Thinkpad off e-bay in 2021, wiped Windows 10 off it and now running Ubuntu 22.10…

As for any discussions of “compiling” - don’t let that muddy the waters - it’s completely irrelevant in your case.

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Dan’s got the right idea. Ebay is international and traffics in used machines. Newegg.com probably does as well. Refurbishing a ‘seasoned’ XP machine from a second-hand store in any country should work, just format the hard drive and load Linux on it. Re-using a computer is ecologically sound.

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In Australia, Kogan is a good supplier of refurbished computers. There are several others.
As Bill says, recycling is a sound practice. I have one refurbished machine and I would do it again.,

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I doubt Hungary would be a bigger market.
But Acer, Asus, Dell provides Linux preinstalled laptops.

Regarding desktop PC’s I found only couple of Dell machines.

There are some more choice without OS or with only FreeDOS preinstalled (practically means NO OS.)

Buying a system second hand it’s not a problem, only when looking at a brand new machine. It would bother me to pay $140 more (or whatever a Windows licence costs nowadays) for something I would wipe :smiley:

Yes, those are the “more complex” things.

I find my Odroid much better for this purpose, simply because of being so much more eregy efficient.

I hate (for me it’s awful) to write text longer than 32 chars on my smartphone.
So yes, kind of agree, but there are tasks for which I find a miniature touch-screen device ergonomic…
I can’t imagine my laptop on my bike navigating me via OSM whereas my smartphone does the job extremely well (OSMAnd) :wink:
(Just for one example)

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Yes, for storage server, nothing beats your odroid solution, especially if it needs to be on all the time.

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Never heard of this. Pictures look like a GameBoy or Playstation handheld device or a single-board device like a Raspberry without a case. Can’t find a description of what it does.

I use my Motorola phone to operate a GPS app for yardages and scorekeeping on the golf course or for reading Kindle books or for navigating–those uses match up with yours.

How does the Odroid deal with Linux? Screenshots, links?

Probably you missed my adventure topic how I moved my server to it :slight_smile:

It works quite well at my home, running Debian Bullseye (headless of course),
and it happily works as my Seafile server, email server, webserver, samba/NFS, dhcp & DNS server for my network (also acting as LAN-wide adblocker, kind of pi-hole), ftp, cal-dav/carddav. I’m not sure I listed everything…

I can provide you a screenshot if you want, but its just a terminal:

This is how it looks (it’s in a hidden narrow dark place, so sorry for the bad picture):

It’s a very nice piece of hardware.
Oh, and a link, before I forget it:

:wink:

What in the world do you call that!!!

It’s the “Odroid HC4”.
A single-board-computer.
Or what do you mean by “What in the world do you call that!!!”?

It’s adorable! But I’ll stay with my SFF 6300, pretty much the same as your Fujitsu. It serves as a lovely stand for my 22" monitor.

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