Knowing which hardware devices support GNU/Linux is important not only for practical reasons — you want your hardware to work with the software that you want to use — but also for ethical and political reasons.

You can help the free software movement by purchasing hardware from manufacturers who support our goals and not purchasing from those who don't.

For example: the Free Software Foundation only purchases desktop machines which support coreboot. As a result, all of the workstations used by the FSF staff have a free BIOS. Where support for a free BIOS is not yet possible, or is limited, some companies have made the decision to sell computers running fully-free distributions of the GNU/Linux operating system.

Further hardware resources

To purchase new hardware that is supported without the need for proprietary drivers or firmware, check the following resources:

• H-Node is a directory of hardware that is supported by the Free Software Foundation's recommended list of GNU/Linux distributions. Many common distributions are not on this list, although the hardware should still be supported.
• The FSF previously maintained its own hardware directory, which is being phased out and the information is currently being transferred to H-Node. If you would like to help with the process of migrating this resource to H-Node, check out the Hardware Directory Migration Group page on Libreplanet.