recommendations for preinstalled
 

Having already abused the newbie forum I'll post this question here.
Does anyone have any recommendations for a preinstalled vendor? I've spent a week trying to get a modem up and it's time to move on.
I'm a newbie so I'm not really caring about which distribution. I know basic Unix and, except for the modem nightmare, am enjoying playing with Debian.
I want to run Apache and MySql on my desktop and talk to my Mac on an internal TCP/IP I've done a lot of web based perl/c/html interfaces/scripting and I want to run my databases at home.
Not afraid to get my hands dirty, my guess is the modem issue is just bad luck (see newbie forum if interested). I'm impressed so far by the level of support the linux community is giving this frusterated newbie and intend to continue, I just want to buy a machine where the modem is configured so I can get off square one.
Thanks in advance for any advice.

I'm assuming you're trying to get a winmodem to work since you don't state what kind of modem you're using. With that said, I've had success with Mandrake and a winmodem. Just get the drivers and you should be set. I run Slackware now and I still can't get the drivers to build.

Have you tried Walmart - I believe the US stores are shipping Lindows preinstalled on a fairly good desktop pc for a few hundred dollars ($299 I think, or I may just have imagined that!)

Go here and you'll see that prices are $199.98 and upwards.

To all us English types that's £125.62. In Euros thats 178.13 Euros.

Cool!!

Thanks for the responses.

>I'm assuming you're trying to get a winmodem to work since you don't state what kind of modem you're using.

My tale of woe is in the newbie forum: Modem not Responding.
They're not winmodems.

> Have you tried Walmart

Walmart has SUSE for appx $300 and Lycoris (?) for $198.
I was hoping for a smaller shop as I think the service would be better (famous last words ...) and I prefer to shop outside of corporations if possible.

I can't see you getting that kind of spec at that kind of price elsewhere - the strength of the big corporations is that they can mak down higher priced goods without denting their profits (and I don't want to get into a debate or flame war about large corporations vs small concerns - I too would rather shop elsewhere).

From the little I have read (news, reviews) the deal offered by Walmart is very good and I haven't heard that the pcs fall over or are under-specced.

No flame wars here. You're probably right about the price, my main issue is I think I'd get better tech support from a smaller shop. If I buy from Walmart and, for instance, the modem doesn't work, I'm more than likely out of luck. I haven't heard anything about Lycoris but Linux is Linux (?). I'm probably going to try a different box with a different distribution (Red Hat?) first and move on from there.
Thanks for your input.