As somebody who never even had a windows machine back in late 90s (my father was also a massive linux enthusiast) I can totally see your point. Ah, compiling th

As somebody who never even had a windows machine back in late 90s (my father was also a massive linux enthusiast) I can totally see your point. Ah, compiling the kernel... Anyways, there are some decent oem options these days. Even if you dislike preinstalled distros, hardware compatibility is guaranteed to be there. It just can't work any other way. Either vendors solve those compatibility problems for you, or you do it. I don't have much time so I went with the easier option of just getting dells or lenovos or simething from the numerous smaller sellers. Both my wife and my daughter are fine with my older hardware, btw.