Kubuntu on Vostro?

Has anyone tried this? Would it work? Do I need to somehow splice the installation CD with the SATA drivers that have been plaguing other installs?

 

hmm I dont fully uunderstand why you'd want kubuntu, I suppose KDE is more fun than Gnome on Ubuntu, but neither are any good except browsing the internet. Trust me I've tried all variations of Ubuntu. I've also made my parents switch from Win XP to Ubuntu, cos all they want to do is browse the internet, and this way they're are safer.

If your looking into using Linux, I'd suggest you get SUSE 10.1 Enterprise Desktop, or the latest free version of it, OpenSUSE.

http://www.opensuse.org

This is by far the best distro out there (maybe with the except Mandriva), it has the best compatability with hardware than any distro, and once you get 3D desktop working its just beautiful, gimme that over Mac OSX anyday .

Now, if you all that I said above and even better compatability, right-of-the-box 3D experience, ability to play pretty much all the the windows games, anti-virus and tons of other software, I suggest you get Mandriva 2007 Powerpack (Not Spring version).

http://www.mandriva.com/en/linux/2007/powerpack

This is not FREE btw, but if you really need it torrentspy is your friend

Some really nice videos of linux 3D desktop, show me if vista can do that:

WINDOWS VISTA AERO VS LINUX UBUNTU BERYL http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC5uEe5OzNQ

Suse Linux 10.2 (Beryl 0.1.3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMvqAovoVXo

Novell XGL/Compiz presentation http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-CgqWlX_GsI

Or just go to youtube and type beryl for some more really nice vids even with Kubuntu

 

lol, yeah I've seen beryl. The only reason why I'm looking into k/ubuntu is because of my friend who already uses both and would have some experience if I needed any help. To be honest, I like the idea of Gentoo, but it seems too "pro" for me. So far the ones I've heard about are SUSE, Fedora, Gentoo, Ubuntu, and Knoppix.

Is Beryl available on other distros or just k/ubuntu?

And will it install on a Dell laptop straight from the disc or do I need to do some modding first?

 

^^ its alright like most people I've been using Windows all my life all, only started using linux a couple of years ago, and tbh theres no reason to use it unless you wish to code software.

Well to answer ur first question, Beryl which now has merged and is called Compiz is available on pretty much every distro, as far as I know.

If you want to install it on your Vostro which I've ordered (same as yours but wont come for another month... I hope) I dont really know. I would highly recomend you get OpenSUSE, I cant guarantee that it will install but trust me it is the most hardware compatible distro. I understand that your friend has knowledge of Ubuntu, but you will get a lot of help in the opensuse forums they're really nice, and theres tons of stuff for it is is easily available and more importantly its easy to use, so go with that. I've never had any trouble with it.

 

Do any of these Linux distro's recognize wireless networking out of the box? I've downloaded several "Live" distros and I can't find one that will recognize my wireless network card.

 

We all know how linux is... if it don't come with it, compile it yourself.

Linux is going to be fun. =/

 

Many are getting better about it but there are still a fair number of drivers that just aren't written for linux. You can use ndiswrapper in linux to use the windows drivers that are written for your wireless device. It has become very good at utilizing a wide variety of drivers.

 

I'm gonna have to disagree with what noiren said about Ubuntu compared to others. There's nothing you can't do on Ubuntu compared to SLED or Mandriva (which are both non-free), it has the biggest online community according to Google and you have your friend to help you with it. I would consider it a no-brainer, but of course that's just IMHO.

About Ubuntu on your Vostro; Dell sells the Inspiron 1420 loaded with it, and it's pretty much the same board as your Vostro. So yeah, it will work. A few warnings though:

1) Dell only sells Ubuntu on the 1420 with Intel graphics, not nVidia. There might be a problem recognizing the nVidia card, so if your lappy has one you might need to do some manual work (not too hard though - you probably won't need to touch a command line terminal).
If you have Intel graphics (GMA X3100) you won't have 3D or video acceleration with the drivers shipped in Ubuntu 7.04. The new version, 7.10 which is coming in two months, will have it. It's also possible to backport the latest drivers to 7.04.

2) Dell only offers the 1420/Ubuntu combo with Intel 3945 Wireless. If you have Dell 1390/1490/1505 you will need ndiswrapper (with Intel it works out of the box). It's not too hard to get it working though.

Good luck.