Tell me about Linux

[tryfuhl]

Originally Posted by Mattyk72

So I'm thinking about getting a new laptop, something simple mostly for internet access and maybe some occassional word processing. I'm looking at a Dell Inspiron Mini 12 and you can get it with Ubuntu Linux as the OS instead of Windows. Should I go with Linux over Windows? What would you recommend?

Ubuntu is the most "dumbed down" Linux variety, which means that it's a much more natural transition for people coming from OS's like the Windows and Mac flavors.

The ones that they're putting on these laptops are luckily geared for the hardware so unless buggy, you should have very little to no issues, which can exist with graphics drivers, etc when installing on a desktop not designed for it. You probably won't have to be editing .conf files daily and manually updating your kernel or anything. I haven't used them on all of these netbooks and minibooks lately, but I've read a bit, seem to be pretty fine and stable.

Any specific questions/issues you have about the OS itself?

[GhettoDogAllStars]

Originally Posted by tryfuhl

The ones that they're putting on these laptops are luckily geared for the hardware so unless buggy, you should have very little to no issues, which can exist with graphics drivers, etc when installing on a desktop not designed for it. You probably won't have to be editing .conf files daily and manually updating your kernel or anything. I haven't used them on all of these netbooks and minibooks lately, but I've read a bit, seem to be pretty fine and stable.

Not sure if you made your decision yet Matty, but this would be my major concern -- hardware drivers. Some vendors don't have drivers for linux. Although sometimes 3rd parties will develop them, or different drivers will work, it can be a pain in the ass. There will always be drivers for windows.

It's really a drag because I dual boot, and I would love to use linux more. However, there are no drivers for my skype phone. I use my skype phone for work, so I can't go without it. Everything else I need works (with very little config), yet I can't use linux because it lacks support for just one of my devices. For shame.

So basically, if you get a system with linux, of course it should work correctly right out of the box. However, if you ever want to add new hardware, you could run into problems.

[tryfuhl]

Originally Posted by GhettoDogAllStars

Not sure if you made your decision yet Matty, but this would be my major concern -- hardware drivers. Some vendors don't have drivers for linux. Although sometimes 3rd parties will develop them, or different drivers will work, it can be a pain in the ass. There will always be drivers for windows.

It's really a drag because I dual boot, and I would love to use linux more. However, there are no drivers for my skype phone. I use my skype phone for work, so I can't go without it. Everything else I need works (with very little config), yet I can't use linux because it lacks support for just one of my devices. For shame.

So basically, if you get a system with linux, of course it should work correctly right out of the box. However, if you ever want to add new hardware, you could run into problems.

The computer and OS were made for each other, not in a lovey dovey way, but the OS was designed around the particular hardware in those machines.