New G530: Choosing an OS, DVD software, &c.

EDIT: I have looked at this post again and tried to tighten it up. Good gracious I can be wordy sometimes.

Howdy! I know that the humble Value Line isn't exactly the main focus around here, but as a new G530 owner (I bought the G530-4446-36U currently on sale at Newegg), I'm hoping to find some advice and info that will help me get rolling when it gets here.

I am the "yay! my new toy is here! now I just have to read all the manuals and finish going through this 51-point checklist I wrote out and then I can start playing with it!" kind of guy. So I can always use help (not necessarily just the technical variety either ).

Information's been a little difficult to dig up, as I don't see this particular model being sold by Lenovo directly, and neither it nor any other 4446-3*U models are listed in the July 3book.pdf. Information about the G530 line in general is in fact kinda sketchy across their website. Maybe I'd be able to intuit more, only this will be my first experience owning an IBM/Lenovo branded product and a Windows notebook of any kind (sure, I know a fair bit about desktops...but lappies are weird)--and my first experience running Vista, if that's what I decide to stick with.

Which leads me to my biggest question. I intend to do a clean install on this machine when I get it. I can borrow an install CD for either XP or Vista from the tech guy at the office (between this new machine and a dead XP desktop, I should have valid license codes for either version at my disposal). So that leaves me with several options that I need help deciding amongst:

a) Clean install XP now; plan to upgrade via another clean install to Windows 7 in October.

b) Clean install XP now; don't worry about Windows 7 at all until at least one Service Pack has come out for it, and/or there emerges a specific and urgent reason why I need it.

c) Clean install Vista now; plan to upgrade via another clean install to Windows 7 in October.

d) Clean install Vista now; plan to use the upgrade-in-place method for moving to Windows 7 in October.

e) Just live with the factory configuration for now, minus whatever bloatware I can easily get rid of via uninstallers and Add/Remove Programs; plan to upgrade via clean install to Windows 7 in October.

I'm sure there are other options I could mention, but I'll stick with those for now.

My second question would be whether this machine can be set up for Windows/Linux dual-boot, and if so how would that affect my choice above and how I carry it out. Not that I've ever played around with Linux before...but I feel as if I should start.

My third question (I'm going to make myself stick to three right now) is tangentially related to clean installing. I'm suspicious about bundled DVD software--in my experience Nero and Roxio and such extend their tendrils everywhere, and are hard to root out or even ignore when one wants to. I'm not sure yet which my unit will come loaded with...but either way, does anyone have advice on whether I should replace the DVD tools that come with the machine with freeware alternatives?

I'm thankful for the help I've already received in other areas of this site, and will be most grateful for any helpful replies here.

 

Probably the first use of the word tangentially on the forum. When you're going through the 51 point check list, make sure to have some fun along the way.

I guess the OS question is a personal preference and whether you want to put in the work for fours months of usage. I like XP and Vista both for different reasons. XP runs better and Vista looks better.

Yes, you can dual boot if you like or install a distro of Linux right on top of Windows using Wubi, if you just want to get your feet wet. It won't effect question one much. If you install Linux second it will control the boot process. If you uninstall it, it might get a little messy, but you can use a Windows CD to fix the MBR.

Version six was the last good version Nero. The rest are just farty bloatware, trying to take over everything. I would presume the same with Roxio. ThinkPads come with a branded version of Roxio. I would presume the same of Lenovo notebooks, but don't have any firsthand knowledge. I always do a clean install. I don't use many of the ThinkVantage Tools, including the media software. For burning discs I use CDBurnerXP and ImgBurn. Both are small footprint freeware that work well for the basics, which is all I do. ImgBurn does add some autoplay handlers and tries to take over a few things, but it's easily fixed in the settings. VideoLAN is good for DVD playback and lots of other formats too.

 

That's helpful, thanks. I'll be trying to minimize use of ThinkVantage tools and bundled software, so going with CDBurnerXP and ImgBurn and VideoLAN seems like a good thing to try. Anything I decide I miss I'm sure I can put back on, since I plan to image the drive with Acronis and then make the system recovery CDs/DVDs before I do anything else.

Wubi sounds like just the ticket for trying out Linux. I'll add playing with that to my 51-point checklist.

"Runs better" trumps "looks better" in my book (heck, there's still plenty of things I miss about DOS); and if there's any software that I use that needs Vista to reach its full potential, I haven't heard about it. And I've learned the hard way that being too eager to "upgrade" can cause unnecessary grief. So I think I'm learning towards option b) above.

The one worry I've got so far in looking through the Lenovo forums is some reported oddness with video drivers, as discussed in this thread (poster has same model type, different model number than mine). If anyone has any experience or information to relate about that, I'd love to hear it. The prospect of having three different monitor listings in the Device Manager in particular freaks me out a little. I hate it when the device list gets all goofy like that.

P.S. Hmm... I wonder just how identical the G530 is to the earlier N500. Since there's no HPP posted for the former, people on the Lenovo forum are being referred to the latter; so the models must be really similar. I hope that's a good thing.

 

tomorrow I'll buy the G430 too...and having the same problem about OS.
does lenovo havesupport driver for XP?? (on this new models?)

as from what I've seen lately....the laptop vendor is already moving their support from XP to vista.