Do the Ubuntu PCs come with exactly the same hardware as the Windows ones?

Question

I am interested in buying a PC, and myself intend to use Ubuntu as my main operating system. However, I will share such a PC with my brother, who wishes to play games. Hence, a PC with Windows pre-installed is desirable.

I was originally planning on buying a Dell with Ubuntu pre-installed, but am now considering instead a Dell with Windows pre-installed. I would then install Ubuntu on top of it in a dual-boot configuration.

However, I am concerned about the compatibility of hardware in terms of drivers. If I were to buy the Windows PC, would the components be exactly the same as the Ubuntu PC? (Presumably, all of the hardware in the Ubuntu PC will be compatible with Ubuntu.)

Otherwise, will equivalent parts be installed in the Windows PC, and are they guaranteed to have Linux drivers?

I am particularly concerned about the wireless NIC. If I buy a Windows machine with one fitted, it would be nice to know if it would work in Ubuntu -- especially as buying one separately seems to be a bit of a lottery!

I am focussing on the Inspiron 6400 laptop. (The Inspiron 530 desktop does not seem to have a wireless NIC option in Ubuntu -- why might this be?)

Thanks in advance,
FSHero :-)

Thanks

gbrainin · Answer

The Ubuntu offerings are, for the most part, a subset of what is offered with Windows. If you're planning to dual-boot, you may want to limit yourself to the hardware that's available with Ubuntu.

Even at that, the pre-installed Ubuntu computers are slightly different than what comes on the install CD. The differences are specified here:
http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu_7.04/Add-on_Packages

FSHero · Answer

Thanks for the reply gbrainin. Okay, no problem with the additional packages installed. I was just wondering, would the wireless chipset in the Windows laptop mentioned above be the same as the one in the Ubuntu laptop? Also, if I were to buy an Inspiron 530 desktop PC, would the wireless card work with Ubuntu? (I suppose it's a risk, since no wireless NIC is offered with the equivalent Ubuntu PC)

pcgeek11 · Answer

I have never had any problems running a wireless card under Linux, even the ones that are not Linux Driver compatible can be configured to run in Linux using the windows driver files and ndiswrapper that comes with linux.   pcgeek11

Chief_jim · Answer

gbrainin wrote: The Ubuntu offerings are, for the most part, a subset of what is offered with Windows. If you're planning to dual-boot, you may want to limit yourself to the hardware that's available with Ubuntu. Even at that, the pre-installed Ubuntu computers are slightly different than what comes on the install CD. The differences are specified here: http://linux.dell.com/wiki/index.php/Ubuntu_7.04/Add-on_Packages My daughter has the 1420 that doesn't connect wired or wireless with Ubuntu. Can these be downloaded separately onto a CD or USB thumb drive for installation? I'm a PCLOS user so I'm unfamiliar with the .deb way of doing things.

gbrainin · Answer

I'm not personally familiar with the NICs on that computer, so I don't know specifically what to do. However, in general, if you can determine the precise make and model of your hardware, a little judicious Googling will usually turn up a method or two for getting it to work. The tricky bit is that some of the stuff on the web is older than the currently available software, so try to find something that's been written in the past 6 months or a year at most.

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Do the Ubuntu PCs come with exactly the same hardware as the Windows ones?

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