I use FreeBSD on my desktop, and years of hardware problems has taught me to be very selective in the hardware that I buy.

For example, I only buy networked printers that support Postscript, such as many HP or Kyocera models. Then one line in /etc/printcap is all that is needed to be away and printing.

Similar story for networking devices, RAID cards, etc... you buy the ones you that are reputed to work well and avoid the others..