50,000 Arduino units have been sold worldwide since mass production began two years ago. Those are small numbers by Intel standards but large for a startup outfit in a highly specialized market. What's really remarkable, though, is Arduino's business model: The team has created a company based on giving everything away.

One of the things that many people buying new computer or other hardware consider is the hardware compatibility with GNU/Linux. Actually many people do not even think about that. They just go to the shop, buy something that they liked and after that go home and install some distribution.

Inquisitor is a mature hardware diagnostics, stress testing, certification and monitoring platform, running on GNU/Linux. It's
suitable for both enterprise and home use, customizable, modular and
available in standalone version, server-controlled network boot production system and serverless Live CD format.

If you buy Linux, you’re not only keeping money away from Microsoft, you’re telling OEMs (original equipment manufacturers), that you really do want Linux. And, if enough people do that, the OEMs will support Linux on more of their systems, their vendors will make drivers for Linux components, and the entire Linux desktop world will be the stronger for it.

Open Graphics Project founder Timothy Miller recently noted on the project's mailing list that they are set to announce that their first hardware, the OGD1, is ready for pre-order.

One almost unavoidable problem with using an operating system that is not used by the majority of people is compatibility, specifically hardware compatibility. While Linux supports an amazing number of devices out of the box and chances are if you put Linux on any random computer it will, for the most part, work, there are still many cases where having information about hardware compatibility can be useful.

Many people have complained about the lack of pre-integrated computers running GNU/Linux or the lack of fully free software drivers for important hardware. Ultimately though, it’s up to you, the consumer, both to satisfy your own requirements and to send a message to vendors that supporting free software pays. You can do this fairly easily by integrating your own computer from its major components, and selecting only components that have free software drivers. It’s certainly possible, and even if you’ve never built a computer before, it’s not all that hard!