possible new convert :-)

Let us know the result.
BTW Another excellent debian-based distro that works very well on notebooks and wi-fi is kanotix.

anticapitalista

Philosophers have interpreted the world in many ways; the point is to change it.

You might be in for a surprise.

My wife just bought a Dell laptop for our daughter, as a combination birthday/graduation present--she'll need it more for college than the hefty desktop that she's been using since 6th grade.

It came with xp home, and I was made to swear that I wouldn't proactively "make things better" for her.

We had a talk adout her having used only Linux for the past 7 years, and how insecure the windoze world really is. My point was that she should be very cirsumspect with regard to ANYTHING that has ANYTHING to do with the online paradigm--email included. She was going to ask me to set her up with dual-booting anyway, she says.

I'm game.

I booted-up the 3.4-3 release of SimplyMepis on her machine and found that everything works, just like one would expect from a factory load.
Display is fine without command line boot switches/parameters.
Sound works immediately.
Synaptics touch pad works.
Modem works.
10/100 NIC works.
Wireless works.
No problems with CD/DVD burning or USB devices.
Battery charging and status monitoring works.

Interested parties might like to know that it's a Dell Inspiron B130 (not the worst, and not the best).

I'd say that I was surprised but, I learned a while back to anticipate pleasant surprises from Linux, so this was somewhat of an anticlimactic event for me.

She'll get her dual-boot set-up, as soon as I sort-out the partitioning scheme they used to hide the recovery files on that hard drive (a bootable ntfs sandwiched between 2 hidden fat32's).

----------------------------

Read before you rant-post.

EnigmaOne, thanks for the info on the Dell. I'm in the market for a new one since I have an Inspiron 2600 (will somebody PLEASE explain Dell's naming convention?!). I was considering the B130 'cause it's cheap but was concerned about the wireless specifically. Since you've "tested the waters" and didn't sink (glub) I appreciate your post. I'm still leaning towards the Linux Certified laptops (heard good things about them) even though they're more expensive.

Too bad Dell doesn't officially support Linux. There are always news bits and posts on Slashdot that Dell finally has Linux but it's always in the UK and/or buried deep/deep/deep in the Business side of their websites.

Jon

It's been my observation that Windows has a tendency to plant system files in the center and toward the end of the HD, which sometimes thwarts QParted. I've found that PQMagic 8.0 will move those files toward the front end and free up what ever space you need. It will also create Linux and swap file and format them. One time grub failed to install properly and caused the active partition to get unmarked. The only thing that would boot after that was the XP recovery mode but, unfortunately, it had no ability to set the active partion or to reinstall the MBR. (The Recovery mode didn't make the format command available) PQMagic has PQBOOT.BAT, which allowed me to reset the active partion and reinstall grub.

Last I read a few months ago, Dell was offering a few lower end desktops with just FreeDOS, besides some high end machines with Linux. But I've had a very similar experience to EnigmaOne running Linux on a P4 Dell desktop and an older Dell Latitude laptop. Sometimes, I wonder if Dell actually designs many of their computers for GNULinux these days, besides also some inferior OS (ahem) though I have to give a lot of credit to Linux for working with a lot of hardware. It's certainly a challenge for an OS to work with the huge amount of hardware out there.

I just designed/built my first desktop, for Linux, a great experience. This dual core box is fast, quiet and runs pretty cool. A laptop would be more of a challenge.

here, in the great world paperweight, you can buy a Dell server with RH or SusE preinstalled, or no OS at all. If no OS, they ring up and ask what OS you are putting on it (which was Debian or Gentoo).
i did just buy two Dell desktops for work, have used the installed XP on one, and am toying with Mepis running Parallels running XP on the other (which will be mine).

Didn't mean to cause a hijack...sorry.

Actually--and thanks for mentioning it--I did look at the parts with QtParted, and assumed that was exactly the case after seeing the sandwich. Some of that is definitely the page file, but I can't insure that there isn't more to it than that, so I'm being prudent about the whole mess.

Having done some beta for VCom, I'm used to using their Partition Commander offering...::: sigh :::...yes I'm gonna plunk-down 41 bones for Partiton Commander 9 (only about $25 cheaper than PQPM), and I am going to hate it.

It is best way to be sure her new LT doesn't get hammered by dear-ole-dad.

Of course...now that I think about it...I could burn that 2.5Gig-worth of restoration junk to a DVD, and free her up that much more room, plus reduce the partition count by 1 and never have to fiddle with an extended partition at all....hmmmmmm.

Where did I leave my thinking chair???

Ah, the good old hidden partition. Works OK I guess if the HD is functional but not if it dies. I had a poor lady who was quite upset because when the HD in her HP died she had to pay $40 to get the recovery disks. A good way to double-dip the customer, I guess. Makes a good case to image the HD after buying a new PC but we all know the average user has no clue about doing something like that.

To follow up on this...

He burned a DVD copy of the hidden partition and then we nuked it with Partition Magic. 60gig HD. We let XP have 40GB, 19 for Mepis 3.43 and <1GB for swap. Mepis works well and he likes it. We still haven't figured out how to make wifi work, tho.

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Bob L Hunter
bicycle tourist, bookworm, linux newbie
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What's the model of the laptop, or what kind of wireless chip?

Toshiba laptop. Don't know what kind of wifi. Will find out tomorrow.

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Bob L Hunter
bicycle tourist, bookworm, linux newbie
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EnigmaOne (and any others reading):

Would you kindly post an update on your B130 Inspiron / Linux experience? I use MEPIS 3.43 and am having trouble finding a decent priced, Linux capable laptop.

The B130 is actually one model I have been seriously looking at. This laptop would be for my mom, who does not need fancy graphics (graphics card) or sound (sound card), but does need a good warrenty, which is why Dell attracts me. The price is hard to beat too, especially considering her simple needs. It would be a "linux only" machine (i.e., no Windows).

I look forward to any replies. Thanks!

My daughter took the machine with her to college, as a dual-booter (xp & SM6.0-rc1) and is quite happy with it. I figured that I would hear something from her that heralded some sort of catastrophy, but the only advice she's needed so far, was on how to find her 10/100-TX MAC address.
{BTW: She was amazed at "ifconfig -a", and I was ashamed that I didn't school her on the command earlier.}

Since then, she's been doing wonderfully on her own.

It's an excellent, little machine; and I foresee no problems.

Home of the Point-N-Click Help Files
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

EnigmaOne--

How is the LCD quality? This would be for my mom, so I would want it to have at least average LCD quality under Linux. I assume the screen is 15 or 15.4, correct?

Would you mind listing the B130 full specs you got? How about printing. . .any trouble printing with it? I assume you open a web browser to loop back and set up with CUPS, correct?

I am delighted to hear someone else is in the same boat as me, so I can ask questions.

Thanks!