BluSphere - Sleek Linux Pre-Installed Computers

I have been frequenting Linux message boards and chat rooms for several years now. During my time spent in these places I would estimate that 95% of the issues I have helped people with (and seen posted) are related to the installation and setup of the operating system. This comes largely from the fact that most of the computers you can buy come with Windows by default. The experienced Linux user knows that they need to research their hardware before forking out their hard earned money for something that might not work too well with their favorite operating system.

Where does that leave those that don't know which hardware they should be looking for or don't feel like spending time searching for Linux-friendly hardware setups?

Well - purchasing a computer with Linux pre-installed on it of course! There are a few different places that sell computers pre-loaded with Linux and today I would like to mention one that is fairly new to the scene - BluSphere.


BluSphere is a community focused, open source company that only sells computers with Linux installed on them. They have a focus on mobility as well so they currently only sell laptop and tablet systems.

Their more powerful "BluBook Pro" sports an i7 processor, an nVidia GTX 560m graphics card and starts with 8gig of RAM. That should be enough to keep most gamers happy (and it reminds me that it is about time I replace my older Sager Notebook). For non-gamers they also sell a "BlueBook" that has a sleek 1" form factor. Finally they also sell a small android tablet called "Physix" which sports a 1ghz processor and 512meg of RAM.

One of the reasons I like BluSphere (and am giving them this small plug) is because they give 5% of the profits on every notebook they sell back to open source projects.

Now even if you don't care for Ubuntu (Or Unity) the best thing about buying a Linux pre-installed system is that you know all the hardware is supported by the kernel. Meaning with a small bit of work you should be able to get your Linux flavor of choice up and running on it (plus BluSphere doesn't use Linux unfriendly hardware like ATI and Broadcom).

~Jeff Hoogland