Hi there. I'm considering a getting a new pc sometime in the future to install Linux on. My main question concerns those PC's that come with those front panel multi slot flash card reader/writers. I don't know much about them or what bus they run on. Will any of those work with Linux?

Sure, maybe.

As with all linux deals you may or may not find a driver. The card readers fall into two main setups. One is ide. It may work well for memory cards and not for wireless or other special cards. The other way is usb. It too will work well for memory cards and limited uses for wireless.

See if you can get a linux live cd and go to the store and ask to run your CD/DVD.

That sounds promising then since ide and usb is well supported in Linux. To date my experience with these types of cards under linux is on a laptop via the pcmcia port. That uses the pcmcia driver and then the ide driver. Under linux kernel 2.4.x it works very well.

You will find that pcmcia cards are more supported via the pcmcia slot than they are via ide or usb. Don't think that the card reader is a substitue for the pc-card slot on a laptop. They are very different to the OS.

I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you goober.