I just bought a new Dell (its so much cheaper to buy pre-made now rather than building your own from nothing), and i'll be picking it up from UPS today, but i figured i'd ask before i actually take it home and install slack on there... how much does linux like dells w/ P4's. I mean, does dell usually release their drivers (or do box makers outsource most their hardware now from individual makers... i havent had a pre-made box since my 486 Packard Bell)

Also how good are current kernel's with P4's, because i don't recall seeing anything in the kernel config about them.

this has kept me amused at times over the last week...

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/22648.html
may be worth keeping in mind.

is ti really cheaper to buy than build????

i can build a budget Duron800 machine for a little over £200 sans monitor, which would cost around £700 in the shops

yah, i actually just read that about an hour ago and at least the problem turned out to be something simple like being configured for cable select.

As for prices, my dell is a P4 1.6 GHz, 128 133 dimms, 16x12x32 CDRW, 17" .24 monitor, 40 Gig HD, with 1 year parts and labor warranty for only $900 (i chose to just leave a modem and nic out so i could transfer from my old comp). But i figured if i put one together myself prices would go something like
P4 1.6 + motherboard = $350
128 RAM = $25
16x12x32 = $250
17" .24 Monitor = $300
40 Gig HD = $150

so that would com out to $1075, plus i know i would have had to go with the best of everything if i had of just bought it part by part so add another $500 because of that.

i remember seeing a review of P4 on linux somewhere on slashdot a few weeks ago. don't remember the specifics, but overall, the review was positive. you're probably getting a winmodem with the dell tho.

no i didn't get a modem or nic with the computer, i'm just transfering over my old usrobitics modem and some offbrand nic from my old computer (about the last 2 devices that still worked after it took a huge crap)

i'll take a look through slashdot for the p4's though, thanks

The latest 2.4.x kernels have a P4 setting in the config.