Dear Friends,
Okay, I am just too tired to try a plain vanilla install, and I have always used libranet debian, so, I am trying to find out before I order a 5680 with XP, "just in case," if all the hardware is supported, as it does seem rather a waste to dual boot if everything will work at least well enough to get connected and get drivers for the few things that do not. Knwoing the exact hardware, I can then ask the owners of libranet if the machine will work out of the box.
Therefore, I need to ask some kind soul who owns a 5680 to publish the exact specs of dvdrw, ethernet card, &c, as one can find some hardware some places, and some nowhere, and sager has so much stuff listed, and yet one cannot tell necessarily what actual cards, devices, etc are used. Collating the info is a pain.
If I may be so bold as to ask, does anyone here have everything working flawlessly. I mean, it is one thing to have to play with ati drivers, but if one cannot get on the internet to do so, there is indeed a problem. It is one thing to have to carry a cheap mdoem card, for the once or twice per month one needs to dial up, another not to have internal wireless. Likewise, configuring some cd/dvd may be a pain, but some units have almost insurmountable issues left to the laclasses of the world, not the newbs.
I suspect that it is possible as well that the latest knoppix would recognise and use enough harware to make a go of it without any windows, but it seems dumb to buy such a great piece of kit, and have either no way to install linux on the day it arrives, or have to dual boot just to get enough conenctivity to d/l files to make a functinal linux box, not to mention $150 for xp which I use once a month to run streets and trips is rather silly, when the same money could buy twice the RAM or more processor.
If not, I may have to use Mandrake, which appears to be able to recognise most things,but, I am used to debian, and, frankly I only use linux as a political refugee who hates a company like M$ getting away with breaking the law. Funny enough, as a newb, nothing has ever broken in libranet debian, and after getting used to the system, almost everything one can do in windows is totally feasible in debian linux. My main concern is the wirelss, as I travel all the time, and use airport verizon conexions extensively, not to mention at home. Also, I presume that one can, with enough effort make the linuxant drivers for the winmodem work, as I did in my older laptop, now property of my daughter.
The forum here seems to be the best one to ask, as we can be genuinely hardware specific.
Many thanks for reading this, for this answer, and all the other valuable info I have read here.
-Martin
Okay, I am just too tired to try a plain vanilla install, and I have always used libranet debian, so, I am trying to find out before I order a 5680 with XP, "just in case," if all the hardware is supported, as it does seem rather a waste to dual boot if everything will work at least well enough to get connected and get drivers for the few things that do not. Knwoing the exact hardware, I can then ask the owners of libranet if the machine will work out of the box.
Therefore, I need to ask some kind soul who owns a 5680 to publish the exact specs of dvdrw, ethernet card, &c, as one can find some hardware some places, and some nowhere, and sager has so much stuff listed, and yet one cannot tell necessarily what actual cards, devices, etc are used. Collating the info is a pain.
If I may be so bold as to ask, does anyone here have everything working flawlessly. I mean, it is one thing to have to play with ati drivers, but if one cannot get on the internet to do so, there is indeed a problem. It is one thing to have to carry a cheap mdoem card, for the once or twice per month one needs to dial up, another not to have internal wireless. Likewise, configuring some cd/dvd may be a pain, but some units have almost insurmountable issues left to the laclasses of the world, not the newbs.
I suspect that it is possible as well that the latest knoppix would recognise and use enough harware to make a go of it without any windows, but it seems dumb to buy such a great piece of kit, and have either no way to install linux on the day it arrives, or have to dual boot just to get enough conenctivity to d/l files to make a functinal linux box, not to mention $150 for xp which I use once a month to run streets and trips is rather silly, when the same money could buy twice the RAM or more processor.
If not, I may have to use Mandrake, which appears to be able to recognise most things,but, I am used to debian, and, frankly I only use linux as a political refugee who hates a company like M$ getting away with breaking the law. Funny enough, as a newb, nothing has ever broken in libranet debian, and after getting used to the system, almost everything one can do in windows is totally feasible in debian linux. My main concern is the wirelss, as I travel all the time, and use airport verizon conexions extensively, not to mention at home. Also, I presume that one can, with enough effort make the linuxant drivers for the winmodem work, as I did in my older laptop, now property of my daughter.
The forum here seems to be the best one to ask, as we can be genuinely hardware specific.
Many thanks for reading this, for this answer, and all the other valuable info I have read here.
-Martin
