OSNews

Barry is completely right about Linux distros supporting older hardware. However, he's wrong, I believe, in assuming that Linux should automagically figure out what your intent was when you use non-standard hardware configurations. I'm not going to harp on this issue - he wrote his review based on what he wanted to review and his experience with it, it's valid, so be it, let's all get over it.

My concern here, more than anything, is for the general reader forming opinions of LindowsOS. I've used (and reviewed) LindowsOS 4.0 for this site. I had plenty of negative things to say about it - I'm not a Lindows freak, nor do I have any reason to push it more than anything other distro - but I want it dually noted that LindowsOS did not have problems on my test machine, nor on any other machine I've subsequently demo'ed it on. Those machines ranged from a dual Xeon 1.8 Ghz system to an "old school" Pentium Pro.

I currently maintain a large WAN with almost 50 sites and have supervised a team that maintained a network with over 7,000 Windows and Mac clients - I know a thing or two about standard machines. 99.9% of the time, they do not include onboard video AND video cards, or, for that matter, duplicate ports of any sort. The business standard today, as I see it, is a P3 700 with 128-256 MB SD RAM and an 8-16 MB video card. Depending on your manufacturer of choice, you may see slightly different specs.

For the record, the 810 is generally a "value" chipset, which most businesses shun, as they can capitalize the expenses and depreciate them over time. From the Intel website: "The 810 chipset may contain design defects or errors known as errata which may cause the product to deviate from published specifications. Current characterized errata are available on request." Available at http://www.intel.com/design/chipsets/810/.