Because Linux was mostly developed by PC users, the hardware support built into the operating system is fairly typical for a PC. Few esoteric devices have Linux drivers, unless a programmer took the time to write one for himself and then release it to the Linux community. Few third-party vendors offer hardware accessories (such as multiport boards) for Linux either, although this situation is slowly changing as Linux becomes widespread.

The minimum realistic system requirements for Linux are a motherboard with an 80386SX processor or better, 2M of RAM or more, a floppy disk drive, a hard drive with 40M or more, and a video card and monitor. Most user’s systems exceed these requirements. The following sections examine the hardware requirements for a Linux system in a little more detail.