Messages in this thread | | | Subject | Re: What computer do Linus and other prominent kernel developers have? | From | Valdis.Kletnieks@vt ... | Date | Tue, 01 Jun 2010 14:30:53 -0400 |
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On Tue, 01 Jun 2010 19:28:01 +0200, "Fred ." said: > What exact computer hardware components do Linus Torvalds have in his > computer system? > Also other prominent kernel developers like Alan Cox, etc. > > If want to buy same motherboard, CPU, GPU, HDD, etc. > > That way, I know there wont be any problems running Linux, because if > I have that problem, > then he will also have that problem. > If he have that problem, he will surely fix it.
I'm not a prominent developer, I'm just a semi-famous crash test dummy, but.. ;)
"Hey, we just found something which doesn't crash my Vaio!" -- Andrew Morton
Note carefully the following problems with your plan:
1) People like Linus, Alan, and Andrew are all perfectly capable of running a kernel that has a cherry-picked fix or two on it. So it's quite possible they have a system that 2.6.34 doesn't run on, but 2.6.34 plus 3 fixes does. This can add substantially to your support costs.
2) It may not even be possible to *get* the exact same configuration anymore, because the vendor has changed things around. I have a Dell Latitude E6500 laptop. It has a " MATSHITA DVD+/-RW UJ892" in it. If you buy an E6500, there is a good chance it will come with some *other* DVD burner (one of my co-workers kept count, and was up to over a dozen different CD drives/models that Dell shipped during the long production run of one of their Optiplex models).
3) If they have some odd hardware config, and you have troubles installing/ maintaining it on that odd config, you're unlikely to be able to get personal support from them. However, if you get the same config as 3 zillion Linux fanboys, any one of them will be able to bail you out. (I tell newcomers to Linux not to install the distro that's "cool" - install the distro you can get tech support by buying a pizza for the teenager next door. ;)
4) It's quite possible they have hardware that has known issues that don't bother them in their daily usage, but render it useless for your usage. (For instance, I have *no idea* if suspend works on this E6500, because I never use suspend - it's not even built into my kernel. If it's broken on this model and you *need* suspend support, you'll be a very unhappy camper.
4a) A related issue - not only do you need the same hardware, but also the same .config and distro, in case there's mis-match out there. And some developers do odd things either because they just haven't bothered upgrading their userspace, or they intentionally want to test kernels for backward compatibility. I think Andrew still has a Fedora 7 or 8 out there. Will suck if you get that same hardware and discover you need Fedora 13 to support some software you need and Andrew doesn't use... [unhandled content-type:application/pgp-signature] | |