which distro on Dell M90 workstation

[przemko]

Hi!
I got Dell M90 workstation with 4GB RAM, 512M Nvidia Video, dual core etc... On my desktop I tried various linux flavors and currently I use Debian Etch.
I was digging around but could not come to some reasonable conclusion as to which flavor I should put on my M90 (one partition is winxp).
What I need is this (ideally of course)-
- 64 bit architecture
- full 4Gb RAM access (winxp does not allow that)
- wi-fi WITHOUT problems
- bluetooth WITHOUT problems
- full CD and DVD read-write support
- hibernation
- good power management for my battery
- NVIDIA perfect support (I do graphics so I need it)

I don't look for fancy bells and whistles+ just a solid system.

Any help WELCOME!!!
Przemko

[oz]

I don't have a laptop myself, so can't say how well for sure that either will work for you, but OpenSuse and Ubuntu frequently give good results on laptops, and Dell did choose Ubuntu to go on some of there laptops, so maybe try that.

Glad you are enjoying your Etch system. I personally prefer Debian over any of the Debian spinoffs.

[MikeTbob]

Hi!
- wi-fi WITHOUT problems
- bluetooth WITHOUT problems
Przemko

With any Distro, just like Windows, you will have to get your hands dirty a little bit when it comes to WIFI. I mean it mostly depends on the chipset of your card. Some Distro's will work right out of the box with some cards and other cards it won't work at all, but with a little luck all you'll need to do is enter your ISP info and be online.
I'd suggest Ubuntu, Sabayon, Mepis, and Mint.

[user440]

Only one data point, but I installed Ubuntu on my Dell 610 and the wireless worked immediately without any config.

[devils casper]

My vote goes to Ubuntu only. Most of Hardware work out of box and Nvidia driver could be installed with a few clicks only.

[techieMoe]

What I need is this (ideally of course)-
- 64 bit architecture
- full 4Gb RAM access (winxp does not allow that)

You've answered your own question there. 32-bit operating systems (not just XP, any 32-bit one) cannot access much more than 3GB of RAM. They simply don't have enough memory addresses. Therefore using a 64-bit OS will give you access to orders of magnitude more RAM (I think the current max is 32GB in the real world, 16 exabytes in theory).

64-bit - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

- wi-fi WITHOUT problems

The only way you'll have this is if your wireless chipset is an Intel. Intel is one of the very few wireless manufacturers who has released open-source drivers for their hardware.

That being said, however, most cards out there will work just fine in Linux using either madwifi or ndiswrapper. It's hardly rocket science. Madwifi is a driver in an of itself, and ndiswrapper uses your Microsoft Windows drivers as a bridge.

- bluetooth WITHOUT problems
- full CD and DVD read-write support

I believe any major distribution should have you covered quite thoroughly on these points, particularly CD/DVD read/write. I've never had my DVD burner not work under a Linux distribution.

- hibernation
- good power management for my battery
- NVIDIA perfect support (I do graphics so I need it)

Again, you'll likely not find very many Linux distributions with Nvidia support included on the CD/DVD. This is for legal reasons. Some do include it. However Nvidia's official Linux drivers will work on any Linux distribution.