Dell's new linux laptop...

[tomeriker]

I recently purchased a laptop from Dell because it had Ubuntu pre-installed. I have had it for a few weeks and want to post a review. So here goes.

It arrived as you would expect any Dell too. All the goodies were there and the battery was fully charged. I powered it up and just like MS, I had to set it up with user name and password, timezone and time and wholla! Up and running. This was my first experience with Ubuntu 7.04 but no surprises except an Icon about restricted drivers being used. Huh? Dell had installed some proprietary drivers for wireless and Nvidia, which would have been pretty nice except there still was no 3D with the installed driver. So I reloaded the driver. oops, my bad, all I needed to do was type in a term, sudo install nvidia-glx-new enable. ( I think thats right )

After spending some time installing all the things I wanted, I decided to allow the auto updates to install. I scanned through the list and didn't see anything out of the ordinary so I installed all 52. All went well till I did a reboot. After BIOS, nuthing, nadda. Can't find my partition? After selecting every option available, I decided just to reinstall the OS. Here I must say Dell did a fine job. The last option on the list was to restore to factory default. After you select this option and type " RESTORE TO FACTORY DEFAULT" Dell's scripts do all the partitioning and formatting and setup for you. Once finished I was right back to when I opened the box.

I resetup my laptop just like before with out the updates and used it for a couple days to see how it would run. Perfect not a glitch.

So, I did the update again, this time taking out anything that would upgrade the kernel version. NO GOOD. I decided that it had to be in the software that Dell uses to configure the restore. It is placed on 2 partitions on the hard drive. This time I booted into the live dvd and installed from there. I chose to wipe all the partitions and use the whole drive.

I now have a working laptop that can take updates.

I have told Dell of my problem and I am sure they are looking in to it.

I hope this review helps any one considering this.

[Dapper Dan]

Thanks for that tomeriker! I'm likely going to buy my wife a Dell lappy with Ubuntu so this was helpful to me.

[SML-why]

Thanks for the review!

I am thinking to buy a Dell laptop pre installed Linux.

Does it comes with any other Linux distro such as centos or fedora?

[MikeTbob]

Thanks for the review!

I am thinking to buy a Dell laptop pre installed Linux.

Does it comes with any other Linux distro such as centos or fedora?

Not from Dell, unless you count FreeDOS.

[ericcruefan]

I don't know sounds like a royal pain in the arse to me. To many steps for somthing that was supposed to be right out of the box.

I just recently got a new computer too, but still being the Linux newbie that I am. I chose to go with Vista (which i'm not impressed with, but dell still rox)

Love Ubuntu though. I have it on my p4 2.8 ghz PC, and it works great!

[Roxoff]

I don't know sounds like a royal pain in the arse to me. To many steps for somthing that was supposed to be right out of the box.

I just recently got a new computer too, but still being the Linux newbie that I am. I chose to go with Vista (which i'm not impressed with, but dell still rox)

Love Ubuntu though. I have it on my p4 2.8 ghz PC, and it works great!

Huh? Too many steps? Surely if you think Dell have made a mistake here, you should compare the first Linux laptops to the first Microsoft Laptops they did? Back then you had to re-install Windows 95 every 3 months - and that situation didn't improve until Windows 2000 was released (and even then you had to stick with Windows 98 if you wanted to play games). I don't think a once-only install from CD is such a big deal myself if you're working around an issue with the recovery mode.

Yes there are teething problems, but this is the first release of this kind for Dell, and it's pretty solid. It has some minor problems with Ubuntu, but I wouldn't be surprised if they'd already addressed this. It will be very soon that they really are 'right out of the box'.

[tomeriker]

Well, here is an update on my laptop... Everything is still running perfect.. Beryl installed and running great, Wine installed and running great. Wireless is perfect and can get a signal about a block away. The setup for the secure wireless easy as pie. ( I actually had a better experience setting it up with Ubuntu than XP!!) Now my wireless network is encrypted and secure.

I didn't mean to scare off anyone from buying the laptop. I was just explaining my problem in detail and how I fixed it. I am sure there are people out here that could have fixed it in a better manner. My fix was easiest for my skill level. The partitions were still listed to boot to, it just wouldn't boot them. Probably a grub setting would have cured it, but I don't have the knowlege. And in fairness, this isn't the first time an update has crashed a computer.

I was hoping someone would have offered tips on how to fix the problem so future owners could fix it before it became a problem.

Have a nice day

[Genji]

Thank you for the review!

I am happy to see a powerful company like Dell start to use Linux -- it allows more people to see & use Linux. This is a good break from the Microsoft dominated market.

I hope to see other companies take the same approach as Dell has.

I'd like to see Sony someday have their VAIO lineup with a few Linux distros.

[bigtomrodney]

Dell don't sell Ubuntu here in Ireland yet, but I was buying a laptop for that very purpose. I bought an Inspiron 6400 - Core 2 Duo, IPW3945 wifi and bluetooth 2.0.

Apart from a botched order on the wifi which is being resolved (they sent me the cheaper Broadcom, but are now sending the Intel mini pci-e card) it all just works. It's nice to see how things work these days.

Media keys, 3D acceleration wifi (mostly) and even perfect suspend and hibernate. I know this is more a reflection of the community's work than Dell but I am just so happy to have 100% working and supported hardware straight from a big vendor like Dell. Very happy indeed

[DrEntropy]

Tho I don't post much I've stuffed Linux (usually a RH distro, 6.0 thru 9) on laptops from old IBM thinkpads to Toshiba Satellites. All were a bit of "fun" to get everything I wanted configured at first but when they'd die it was like an old friend had passed. Next one will be an inexpensive Acer with a Celeron and likely will put Core 6 or 7 on it.

Dell ain't my favorite notebook supplier, but I'm really glad to see 'em actually selling a Linux preload. 'bout time. And for them to have kept it to a: "works right out of the box" load is what most of the end (L)users who would venture a try really need. Those of us who've been fussing with Linux for a while would crash it just fer FUN, methinks.

I'd like to see IBM get off th' dime and DO what they seemed to promise. I expected to see IBM 'books with a Linux OS YEARS ago.