Redhat support for older Gateway tower...

[onesandzeros]

Ok, I work in Windows tech support, however, I am looking to try out Linux. I've played around with Redhat 7.1 but ran into a lot of problems. I've come across a Gateway PII-400, 256MB RAM that I would like to install RH8 on. I know 9 is out right now but I have my copy of 8 and want to play around with this first. The Gateway has a D-Link nic, DFE-530 which I believe is supported by RH8. It also has an older CDROM, a Sony CDV311-0. A 10Gig hard drive, IBM-DPTA-371020 and for a graphics card a 3dfx Interactive, Inc. Voodoo 3.
I read through some of the forums and people say its best to take an inventory of your computer first. Do I need any more information or is that all set? I looked at the HCL and was unable to find my graphics card or hard drive. Does this mean that RH does not include drivers and I have to go to the manufacturer's site?
Any help is appreciated.

[Alex Cavnar, aka alc6379]

First off, is your hard drive an IDE one? I'm assuming it is. If this is so, then it will work with Linux, and your CDROM should work as well. Also, I'm pretty sure that Linux supports your Voodoo video.

Instead of looking at the HCL, try doing a Google for Linux (http://www.google.com/linux) search with the model names of your NIC, video card, sound card, and any other cards, like SCSI. Doing such a search will probably yield more reliable results than the HCL, as most results are posted by people who have actually run the hardware.

HCL's are so Windows. Welcome to Linux!