Small PCs with Linux preinstalled

Johnboy1951

I am aware of two small form factor PCs that are available with Linux preinstalled, and wonder if others know of any others.

The two I know about are

http://www.fit-pc.com/web/products/mintbox/

made (I think) by an Israeli company

and a USA built box

http://chimpbox.us/

which has my personal favourite distro preinstalled.

So, are there any European supplied competitors to these?

A friend has asked me to source something like this, hence the question.

I hope this is the correct board for such a question.

gctest50

Why preinstalled though ?

it only takes three commands to install Gentoo

- cfdisk /dev/hda && mkfs.xfs /dev/hda1 && mount /dev/hda1 /mnt/gentoo/ && chroot /mnt/gentoo/ && env-update && . /etc/profile && emerge sync && cd /usr/portage && scripts/bootsrap.sh && emerge system && emerge vim && vi /etc/fstab && emerge gentoo-dev-sources && cd /usr/src/linux && make menuconfig && make install modules_install && emerge gnome mozilla-firefox openoffice && emerge grub && cp /boot/grub/grub.conf.sample /boot/grub/grub.conf && vi /boot/grub/grub.conf && grub && init 6

that's the first one

Johnboy1951

gctest50 wrote: »

Why preinstalled though ?

It ensures there is full compatibility with Linux.

It means I can recommend they buy and they will not have to do anything except turn on to use.
Otherwise I might have to install and maybe sort out drivers for some unusual hardware

What distro goes on eventually (if the pre installed one is not acceptable) is not important.

syklops

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

It ensures there is full compatibility with Linux.

It means I can recommend they buy and they will not have to do anything except turn on to use.
Otherwise I might have to install and maybe sort out drivers for some unusual hardware

What distro goes on eventually (if the pre installed one is not acceptable) is not important.

In my experience, its not always a safe assumption that because it has Linux pre-installed that any linux will work on it. Its happened to me a couple times that I ended up having to sort out drivers for unusual hardware, meaning I either had to use the sub-standard distro that came with it, or spend ages trying to make it work, so just a word of warning to begin.

I personally am a big fan of Zotac ZBoxes. Works out of the box with Ubuntu and other distros, uses standard, main stream components.

There is a comprehensive list of pre-installed Linux mini-PCs here

Johnboy1951

syklops wrote: »

In my experience, its not always a safe assumption that because it has Linux pre-installed that any linux will work on it. Its happened to me a couple times that I ended up having to sort out drivers for unusual hardware, meaning I either had to use the sub-standard distro that came with it, or spend ages trying to make it work, so just a word of warning to begin.

I personally am a big fan of Zotac ZBoxes. Works out of the box with Ubuntu and other distros, uses standard, main stream components.

There is a comprehensive list of pre-installed Linux mini-PCs here

Thanks for the link.

Also came across this site which has a couple of small form factor PCs with Linux
http://www.currentbuild.com/