[tlug] Need purchasing advice for a linux compatible desktop

[Joseph Essertier <essertier@example.com>]

Hello.  I need to start working at home, so I'm in the market for a GNU/Linux compatible desktop and I'm wondering if there is an easy way to find one.  It does not need to have Windows on it, but that would be a plus.

Here's what I need to do with it:
1. Run Ubuntu and Debian on it.
2. Be able to use almost all the hardware
3. Be able to play DVDs (In either GNU/Linux or Windows)
4. Be able to burn CDs
5. Be able to use an iPod with it
6. Have working speakers, but minimally adequate speakers (=sound comes out of them) would be fine
7. Have a large screen, roughly 17 to 19 inches wide

Here are some hardware functions I don't need:
1. Modem
2. Wireless internet access
3. Wireless mouse
4. Wireless keyboard

Here are some other things I'd like to be able to do (my wish list)
1. Use my printer with it (Canon Pixux iP4100).  I'm guessing that has little to do with the computer and only to do with the OS, but I'll put this here anyway since printing can be done with my wife's Windows laptop.
2. Be able to burn DVDs
3. Have a dual boot setup with GNU/Linux on one partition and Windows (any version from Windows 2000 or later) on another
4. Do some simple photo editing, nothing fancy; and instant response is not necessary
5. A keyboard that is easy on fingers that do a lot of typing

This computer looks very good:
Dimension^TM 9150
http://www1.jp.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/desktops?c=jp&l=jp&s=dhs

But through a search on the internet, I found some people saying that they had had trouble getting some of the hardware to work in Ubuntu/Debian.  There was some trouble on the Dimension 5150 too, but...  Is there a sure way to tell?  Is this where Knoppix comes in handy, and one goes to the store with a Knoppix live CD in hand, and actually boots up a model computer with the CD?

I saw a bare-bones "box" (?) being sold very cheaply at a computer store for something like 25,000 yen--just the computer, with no screen, keyboard, or mouse; or with any OS installed on it.  It had like a Pentium 4 in it, at 2.5 gigahertz or so.  And the guy at the store told me that someone had recently bought one, saying he was going to install Linux on it.  Is that something that a beginning Linux user like me should attempt?  And buy the screen separately?

Or is it easy to buy computers in Japan with GNU/Linux pre-installed on them?  I saw a laptop with TurboLinux pre-installed on it on the web, but not any desktops.

Either a used or new computer would be fine, but I guess the specs that I am demanding will require me to buy a new computer.

Any advice about where to go or what decision making process to go through would be appreciated.

Thank you.
Joe