Summary

This is just a Quick and Dirty Review. So I apologize for grammer, spelling and overall lack of polish to my writting.
Also I am a total linux newbie. I just want to get that out.

I bought this board and all new components sans hard drive from Newegg.com (who seems to be a pretty good place to shop) I assembled my machine and placed my old drive in it. I had Win2k and Lycoris on it

Windows barfed all over the place and wouldn't load. But Lycoris noticed that my video card had changed and ran the video setup again and let me login without a problem. Anywho this is a review of the hardware not the software so I should probably get down to business.

I decided to reinstall Windows and Linux and start fresh on both fronts. Windows install took forever but went well but the Linux install was amazing. When I booted from the CD-rom the first thing it did was detect the built in audio a Creative CT5880 PCI sound controller and played a little sound. This was before mouse and keyboard detection. Everything else seemed to install fine. But for me Audio has always been a pain in the Arse to get up and running so this blew me away.

The board has a Built Realtek 8100BL Ethernet 10/100Mb LAN controller . I am not on a network at home but the system show that the device is working and is detected properly. I have always had great success with Realtek cards in the past under win and lin so I am confident that this is working just fine.

I know that this is not an indepth review but I just wanted to let everybody know that this board seems to work just fine with Linux. There is other onboard options such as IDE Raid, Dual Bios, etc.. but I really don't have the hardware or the software to test or verify their perfomance.

I would like to also say that I have used Gigabyte boards before and they have always been easy to work with. They are a respected company in the industry and offer good support via their website Giga-byte.com

Finally I would like to say that this instilation went so well primarily due to the quality of the Lycoris Distribution. I already admitted that I am a linux Newbie but I have been working with Wintel machines since 1995. I often recommend PC's and peripherals to freinds, and family. Until now I haven't felt comfortable recommending Linux. But with the ease of install and config of Lycoris I now feel comfortable recommending it to self described "PC Illiterates".

Thanks