westcliffe01
Veteran Member
After a worse experience with windows with every OS update, I decided that the next time would be something else. Last time was a Toshiba notebook that came with (drum roll) Vista.... ugg uggg puke.... That particular laptop fairly quickly was donated to a needy soul on an unexpected business trip which allowed me to see my dad and mom in South Africa after not having been there since 2002.
Since last year, I have been without a laptop and a few months ago I began what I consider "serious research" into the laptop and Linux combination. I discovered that laptops seem to experience hardware changes faster than some change their underwear, which can be a much bigger problem when compatibility with Linux is considered. Someone actually has to modify the kernel to suit that funky hardware combination and when only a few thousand of those laptops are sold, it may not be considered worth the effort. And unlike a desktop PC, you can't just swap out the dysfunctional video card / lan card, wireless adapter or whatever.
So by hook and by crook, I discovered that Dell has started selling some of their laptops "out the box" with Ubuntu Linux. If you go to Dell.com, you would be hard pressed to find the word Linux anywhere. It's almost a secret. Somewhere deep in the fine print I found a link regarding "open source PC's" http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/ubuntu?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=anavml
That took me to the page where they list their Ubuntu based products. A very nice feature of their store is that they allow many key components to be configured, including most important to me, the BATTERY. I paid an additional ~$50 or so to get a 9 cell battery that will run the laptop for 6-7 hours, not just 2-2.5. Yeehahhh ! The one I configured cost about $600 + shipping and is basically the the N15 with 4gb memory, 250gb hdd and the mother battery.
So how do I like it ? Fabulous ! Starts up in about 20 seconds. Shuts down in about 10. Comes with open office and Mozilla Firefox browser. First application I added is called Wine (like the drink). It is a non windows XP emulation environment. With wine installed, I was able to install MS Office 2007, which I bought earlier this year through a "corporate" deal at a cost of $10. Everything in office works just like before including VB scripts and the like. So now I get to use the windows products I like (Excel, Powerpoint etc) without ever dealing with their sucky operating system ever again.
The "no script" plugin to firefox is the best thing since the day they invented the internet. Makes those dancing ads and the google banner trash disappear like they were never there and the site downloads faster if not downloading all that junk too.
So to those of you on the fence, consider Ubuntu or one of the other Linux distributions. If you have a desktop, migration is safer, since there are more ways to resolve any potential hardware issues. If you know how, create a seperate partition to boot from and try it out. There are some applications like the high end CAD systems that do not yet support linux, but for the things most of us do, and a lot of the heavyweight scientific applications, Linux is good to go.
Since last year, I have been without a laptop and a few months ago I began what I consider "serious research" into the laptop and Linux combination. I discovered that laptops seem to experience hardware changes faster than some change their underwear, which can be a much bigger problem when compatibility with Linux is considered. Someone actually has to modify the kernel to suit that funky hardware combination and when only a few thousand of those laptops are sold, it may not be considered worth the effort. And unlike a desktop PC, you can't just swap out the dysfunctional video card / lan card, wireless adapter or whatever.
So by hook and by crook, I discovered that Dell has started selling some of their laptops "out the box" with Ubuntu Linux. If you go to Dell.com, you would be hard pressed to find the word Linux anywhere. It's almost a secret. Somewhere deep in the fine print I found a link regarding "open source PC's" http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/ubuntu?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs&~ck=anavml
That took me to the page where they list their Ubuntu based products. A very nice feature of their store is that they allow many key components to be configured, including most important to me, the BATTERY. I paid an additional ~$50 or so to get a 9 cell battery that will run the laptop for 6-7 hours, not just 2-2.5. Yeehahhh ! The one I configured cost about $600 + shipping and is basically the the N15 with 4gb memory, 250gb hdd and the mother battery.
So how do I like it ? Fabulous ! Starts up in about 20 seconds. Shuts down in about 10. Comes with open office and Mozilla Firefox browser. First application I added is called Wine (like the drink). It is a non windows XP emulation environment. With wine installed, I was able to install MS Office 2007, which I bought earlier this year through a "corporate" deal at a cost of $10. Everything in office works just like before including VB scripts and the like. So now I get to use the windows products I like (Excel, Powerpoint etc) without ever dealing with their sucky operating system ever again.
The "no script" plugin to firefox is the best thing since the day they invented the internet. Makes those dancing ads and the google banner trash disappear like they were never there and the site downloads faster if not downloading all that junk too.
So to those of you on the fence, consider Ubuntu or one of the other Linux distributions. If you have a desktop, migration is safer, since there are more ways to resolve any potential hardware issues. If you know how, create a seperate partition to boot from and try it out. There are some applications like the high end CAD systems that do not yet support linux, but for the things most of us do, and a lot of the heavyweight scientific applications, Linux is good to go.
