On Mon, 25 Feb 2008 12:31:00 -0500, Troy Kirkland wrote:

> "Roy Schestowitz" <newsgroups@schestowitz.com> wrote in message
> news:6021152.Kkc47jfuF0@schestowitz.com...
>> Linux on a Dell Inspiron 1501
>>
>> ,----[ Quote ]
>>| At this point Linux was ahead of Windows, because I could get all my
>> desired
>>| software through apt-get. I use Firefox on both sides, synchronizing my
>>| bookmarks with Foxmarks. In contrast, it took hours to get all my
>> necessary
>>| Windows programs installed, including all the little free or paid-for
>>| shareware programs I use.
>>|
>>| To be honest, I haven't explored Ubuntu very deeply yet. I don't
>> currently
>>| have any programming projects, and I'm not setting up any special
>> services.
>>| Mainly I'm doing email, surfing the web, and writing. But since getting
>> Linux
>>| installed I don't think I've booted into Windows once in the last two
>> months
>>| except to install software, just in case I need it.
>> `----
>>
>> http://blog.genewilburn.com/archives/30
>
>
> -- "Then I searched out newsgroup and forum experiences on their usability
> with Linux. One laptop I'd been looking at, an Acer, got a major thumbs down
> from Linux users who ran into serious problems with drivers."
> Translation: Despite the COLA claims this is yet more hardware that doesn't
> work with Linux.
>
> -- "After I had Windows XP working - and it's always best to install Windows
> first on a dual-boot Linux computer - I turned to Linux. I've grown to like
> Ubuntu Linux and downloaded the latest ISO file and burned a boot CD. I've
> installed Ubuntu onto a few machines now with no problem, but when I
> attempted to boot it on the 1501 the video disappeared and the system hung.
> I had to remove the battery before I could get control of the system back."
> Translation: Yet more linux ubuntu hardware issues. So much for the "it
> works for me crowd" because clearly there are some major problems.
>
>
> -- "I rebooted, and lost the video again. Back to removing the battery to
> shut down the system."
> Translation: Yep. More amateur slopware that isn't ready for the masses.
> What good are the 20 different text editors if the video won't even work.
>
>
> -- "It turns out that the boot line in /boot/grub/menu.lst needs to have
> "splash" removed. I also removed the "quiet" attribute from the line because
> I like to watch the progress as my system boots."
> Translation: Tweak enough config files and maybe linux will work.
>
>
> -- "With this fix, Ubuntu booted up quite well, but looked like crap. The
> open-source video drivers for the video didn't do it justice. Perusing
> through the Ubuntu 1501 site indicated that it was possible to get a
> proprietary, non-open-source video driver."
> Translation: Once again propreitary closed source beats open source.
>
>
> -- "I still didn't have wireless working though... There were several
> entries on getting wireless to work on the 1501 but the one that sounded the
> cleanest was one involving ndiswrapper running the XP driver within Linux."
> Translation: Linux still has piss-poor support for wireless cards. Thank
> goodness that a MS-Windows driver was available otherwise he'd be without
> wireless.

Yep..
These Linux laptops are really turning out to be pieces of crap, not
hardware wise but software wise.

Tell me, how can something that bad be released?

Oh I know, they expect the Linux community to debug the thing for them and
contribute their findings back to the manufacturer.
That must be it.

--
Moshe Goldfarb
Collector of soaps from around the globe.
Please visit The Hall of Linux Idiots:
http://linuxidiots.blogspot.com/