[sf-lug] Rick's explanation of his internet setup.

[Rick Moen]

Er, not trying to overwhelm this thread, but an aspect of this
that I think is worth stressing:

Quoting jim stockford (jim at well.com):

> I'd like to know what are the
> best choices for CPUs, motherboards, and
> such in the first half of 2006.

In general, hold back from the new stuff that all the Ziff-Davis / CNet
idiots push endlessly.  If you read the text following "Moen's Law of
Hardware" at http://linuxmafia.com/~rick/lexicon.html#moenslaw-hardware , 
you'll probably get the (correct) idea that I'm stressing that point
strongly, because it's counter-intuitive to a lot of newcomers.

There's an old techie joke:

Q:  How do you tell the pioneers in the computer field?
A:  By the arrows sticking out of their backs.

You want someone else to be the pioneer.  This point applies to all
newly introduced _chipset_ that must have Linux support developed for it
(e.g., video chips as to X11 graphics support, SATA, SCSI, sound,
ethernet, softmodems, etc.).  If you don't know what a "chipset" is, 
_learn_.  ;->

Since you really don't want to have to rely on lame-ass proprietary
drivers (if available at all), you want it to be likely that there are
_good, well-tested_ open-source drivers.  Which means you want to
scrupulously avoid the shiny-new fashionable stuff -- along with the
exotic stuff, the non-standard-protocols stuff, the cheap-shlock stuff,
the new-chipset-every-week stuff.

Ideally, you want bog-standard, medium-to-slightly-high quality chipsets
that have been included in shipped systems/parts for at least a year.

Personally, I like used stuff, which also avoids new-car 20%
depreciation-in-the-first-block syndrome.  ;->

-- 
Cheers,    "Cthulhu loves me, this I know; because the High Priests tell me so!
Rick Moen   He won't eat me, no, not yet.  He's my Elder God, dank and wet!"
rick at linuxmafia.com