That's only possible if you pay no attention to the hardware you buy. The last time I had to do any post-install config with a linux distro was when I installed

That's only possible if you pay no attention to the hardware you buy. The last time I had to do any post-install config with a linux distro was when I installed kubuntu 5.10 and since Debian 4 onward I never experienced any problem. Then of course companies like Google are immune to this sort of issue as they even design and sell linux hardware.