Looking for recommendations for a vendor who puts together desktop systems that can run Alma. Not looking for cheap/minimal, rather for a capable system (lots of disk, ram, 4k graphics as by Intel, etc.) – I just don’t want to put together the hardware components myself. I don’t expect them to actually install Alma themselves (though if they can, great), but at least avoiding custom kernel drivers.
Big or small company, doesn’t matter to me.
Since the system is for use at home, being as quiet as possible is imperative.
I was previously happy with the “Serenity” model from pugetsystems.com, but they don’t provide it running any GNU/Linux any more. The machines from system76.com are nice, but require running their own kernel drivers to control the fans (I learned to my dismay). Other vendors, such as Penguin, seem to have limited and non-customizable offerings.
I’ve done a bunch of general web searches but nothing has caught my eye, so I thought I’d ask here. Would greatly appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!
Just a gentle hint: it might be helpful if you indicated where in the world you are! Customs fees and shipping costs might be significant otherwise. If you are in the UK, I’ve had good service from PCspecialist in the past.
Thanks to everyone for the replies. I’m in the US (sorry that I failed
to mention), but I’ll peruse PC Specialist anyway.
For the vendors I looked at, notably pugetsystems.com, buying
a Windows license isn’t necessarily required, but a machine that was
intended for Windows seems questionable for installing a Linux kernel
nowadays, especially an “older” one like Alma.
The Dell/HP/ offerings that explicitly supported Linux
were plausible, but even when Linux is supported, device drivers for
anything but the distro that they provide remain a big question mark in
my mind. I have had plenty of problems in the past with a vendor
shipping Ubuntu/Fedora/whatever, and the hardware failing with (in those
days) CentOS.
Anyway, thanks again for the replies. --best, karl.