buy a refurb pc ?

[RedHat123]

how do i go about finding out the individual components of a oem pc (hp, sony, dell etc)...to check for linux compatibility ?

for example, say im thinking about this Sony vaio on ebay
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=51141&item=5107758208

i need to find out what brand of hardware its got

[Hayl]

go to sony's web site and look up any support/docs, etc that they have for it.

[cybertron]

I would guess you're going to have trouble doing that. I tried with my laptop and didn't get very far. I get as much info by looking at the hardware itself as I do from the website. The companies don't really want you to know what they use because some of the stuff is not of the highest quality:) At least that's my guess.

[AdamZ]

For laptops, you can look on http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/ and http://www.tuxmobil.org/ for information posted by users about getting linux to run on a certain laptop. Usually they list the hardware on the pages too.

[timothykaine]

As a long time computer salesman I would suggest neither a Sony nor a refurbished computer. Thats a death-combo. Id give it a week at most.