Hi guys I have been using linux for quite a while on my asus notebook. But I decided to pass the notebook onto my sister and build my own desktop. I have built desktops in the past so this is not the issue. The issue is, I dont know which linux distro to run on it. I would like it to be a non source distro (gentoo and the likes). I have used Ubuntu and Arch, and really like both. But im wondering since everything is customized in a desktop, such as different gpu, cpu, hdd, lan, wlan cards than as they would come in a prebuilt system, whether or not these distros would have an issue with hardware recognition. My desktop will have to connect wirelessly, i can look at the wireless card compatibility list so that should not be an issue. I will probably get an nvidia card, not something hardcore though, I do not game at all anymore.

Do you guys think I should even use linux on a custom built desktop? My only thing is i dont want to pay 100 dollars for a windows cd!!

I have some that dont require activation per se. Hell, ill just dual boot.

Can you guys still recommend a distro?

Any distro should be fine - I've run quite a few at one point or another on my custom desktop, even a few years back when all the hardware was new..

So far I think I've tried Gentoo, Ubunto, Fedora, SuSE and Arch.

My favourite is Gentoo, but if I had to pick another I'd probably go for Ubuntu right now.

Hardware detection should be no problem at all unless you buy some real oddball hardware

Heh Spincricket... Desktops run linux MUCH better on average than Laptops do.

I really wouldnt worry to much about it, keep your eyes on linux compatibility and you would be fine. Nvidia Video Card, Decent Wireless Chipset, those are your two big ones.

Seablade

And Ubuntu would be fine.

Seablade

Gotcha! Sweetness thanks guys.

It's kinda weird that the only reason you say you're not using windows is because it costs $100. If you really prefer windows then buy it. I guess I've just never heard of anyone using linux because they didn't want to buy an ms license. It usually goes way deeper than that.

As far as distros go, the only reason I recommend Ubuntu is because of the community. Without the Ubuntu community it's not much better than the other distros out there.

yeah....use Ubuntu or Arch if you like them...whichever you feel like, it should work. Just make sure your wireless is a common chip (i recommend Atheros) and your graphics is nVidia, and thumbs up for an AMD64 X2 if you wanna go that route.