New R61: Should I install Ubuntu or XP

Some background info:
- I'm going to use this laptop mainly as a college laptop.
- I have a desktop with a 8800GT for power work and gaming
- I don't want to dual boot and I don't want Vista

So how's general Linux compatibility with the Thinkpads?
Would battery life be significantly better/worse on one or the other?

I'm probably just going to be using the laptop for typing stuff up, surfing the web, and chatting.

 

You'll get better battery life on XP.

 

To be honest, Linus can be difficult to use straight away, theres a tad learning curve to work with. But once you get used to it its a great OS. I think the main issue may be making sure Linux not only runs the programs you need/use, but has drivers around for any devices you need/use. If you cant cope with these issues, XP is always a very stable OS to fall back on! Now ill let Linux xperts weigh in lol.

 

Why not use both? I do that. XP for games, Ubuntu for everything else. Hardy Heron works right out of the box. EVEN the wireless! It's sheer brilliance.

 

Thinkpads provide excellent Linux support, especially now that you have an option of Intel or Nvidia graphics (both of which have great linux support)

I personally run Ubuntu 8.04 on my Thinkpad T61p.

For what you list as far as what you'll be doing with it, Ubuntu should suit your needs perfectly

 

I agree with all who have suggested Ubuntu, however, though you've said you don't want to dual-boot, I'd suggest it anyway, at least until you've learned enough to feel comfortable with Linux. Once you've reached that point, you can then delete Vista (probably would be within a week or two - really).

BTW, in case you don't realize it, installing Ubuntu is very easy whether as a dual-boot, or as the sole OS on your machine. The process probably takes about 20-30 minutes; it's nothing like a Windows install.

 

I am afraid it isn't exactly so...Look here my expercience with Ubuntu:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showpost.php?p=3358196&postcount=22

 

You can get just as good battery life in Ubuntu if not better than Windows if you use the power-saving program Powertop and use cpu frequency scaling. I used to be able to squeeze an extra hour out of my Dell Latitude D620 using Linux.

If your not going to use your Thinkpad for gaming then I would recommend Ubuntu, I ran Linux Mint (based off an older ubuntu base with all the new ubuntu packages with more user friendly "mint" tools) on my Latitude all last year for school and I was almost completely satisfied. Since you doing mostly "typing, internet, and chatting", OpenOffice, Firefox, Pidgin (I use emesene), should suit your needs just fine. The only thing to be wary of is software your school might use for classes such as Minitab Statistical Software, or SPSS. I was able to get Minitab working in Wine, but I always had to boot XP to use SPSS. I suppose you could always use your main rig for programs such as these thou.

I've installed Ubuntu 8.04 on my T61p (dual-boot/XP) and so far things are working flawlessly (wireless, nvidia driver, compiz, etc). I've just been using primary Windows to play the games I've missed out on in the past 2 years ahha.

 

Four options:
1) Dual-boot: Install XP first, then install Ubuntu on the second primary partition. (Recommended for maximum hardware compatibility)
2) VMware: Install Ubuntu and VMware Workstation, then install XP as a virtual guest OS in VMware. (If you don't play games)
3) VMware: Install XP and VMware Workstation, then install Ubuntu as a virtual guest OS in VMware. (Good for Linux beginners)
4) Ubuntu with in XP: Install XP first, then install Ubuntu within XP, not on a separate partition. (Good for Linux beginners, don't even need VMware)

 

Darn, I'm sorry about that.

My wireless worked perfect. This is going to sound like a stupid question, but, did you left click on the network manager instead of right click?

How much swap did you have at that time? For hibernation to work, you need at least the same amount space in your swap as your RAM.

For the Nvidia lag thing, that's out of my league. It works fine with me, though.

As for the battery life, it is true, XP/Vista still is better at that.

In general, Ubuntu, and Linux in general is still in a growing phase for mass acceptance. Most people just don't know about it, and those who know still have the impression that Linux users are Super-Duper-Ultra-Nerds. Thus, there isn't as big a user base to give some developers a big enough incentive to work on the hardware/games development. Over time though, the moment we cross this tight spot, it'll be the hour of Glory for us all!

And I have a hunch that it just might start with the Linux port of Steam.

 

If you search at the net, you will see that the problems with wifi and hibernation in Ubuntu are at the very top of the list.
There are many-many people who have them (the problems) and some of them have posted some workarounds but they do not really solve them.

Yes, unfortunately this is true. The 7.10 version that i had an another laptop of mine, is gives a little better battery life than Windows, i do not know what hapened to Hardy and we have such poor result.
There are some workarounds there too but overally, when i had Hardy in my system, i was catching myself to just do...ehmm...ah, "workarounds" !

I totally agree. I just think that for now, it isn't ready to be considered a mainstream OS.

 

5) Just pop in the Ubuntu Live-CD and boot from it without installing anything. You can test drive Ubuntu with
nothing to lose.

 

Hmm.. Which wireless card do you have? And how much swap did you have?

 

I have Intel 4965 AGN. As far for the swap, i think i had 10GB to that.

 

10GB for SWAP?
The old rule is to double your RAM with systems with lower memory, but anything over 4GB (even that is pushing it) is a waste. I believe swap is the Linux equivalent of Microsoft's paging file.

 

I do not have Ubuntu any more on my T61 so i cannot remember how much thw swap was but i think you are correct, it may me 6Gb as i have 3GB of Ram and i has chosen the Ubuntu "default" when i partitioned so it indeed may be 6GB.

 

I think I'm going to go with XP, simply because I want to deal with less stuff. Thanks for all your input.
Linux still has too many hardware issues, as much as I like it. It's a great OS. I've had it on my secondary computer as the only OS for about 3-4 years and it's served me well, but since this is for school, I'm going to go for reliability and compatibility.

 

Good choice. And honestly, the gaming in XP is just too tempting to bear.

And to objectref, I have the same wireless card. Odd that yours didn't work.

 

Just thought I'd chime in and say that my R61 works with Hardy Heron - wireless didn't require any additional configuration. Nvidia drivers are a burden (Quadro NVS140M drivers are a ***** to find, even for Windows), but beyond that, everything's wonderful.

 

really?

sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-new

that's all it took to get my Quadro 570M up and running under Ubuntu, and it freaking flies

 

I didn't say it didn't work. It was working but with some workarounds. For example, i had to install Wicd and de-install Gnome Network Monitor for my WiFi to work. With GNOME Network Monitor, there are many problems reported .
Next, the WiFi led was not working at all. I had to search and found some hacks that made it work but was constantly on and no blink on data transfer...
Next, when system was coming up from "suspend" (the 50% of the times that suspend worked), WiFI was dead and i ndeeded to reboot.

I hate to say it but Vista runs flawesly on my machine, despite Ubuntu.

 

Well, my wireless light doesn't shine as well, but I don't really care. I just switch it on or of manually.

I have to admit, Ubuntu hardware integration still needs some work.

 

Agreed. It is not (Ubuntu) far behind. Just a little work for these glitches and will be a perfect alternative choice.

 

And the games! Don't forget the games. I seriously believe that games will perform better in Linux because of the low system requirements

 

What is so hard? Just stick in the Ubuntu Live CD and play with it. You might like it more than XP after using it.

The Ubuntu Live session won't install anything on your hard drive. You have nothing to lose.