I have Ubuntu 6.06 on my Dell laptop. I had to do the partitioning, but it detected Win XP and installed grub the right way (you might have to negotiate on the default OS).
There are 3 Ubuntu disks: 'Live CD', 'Alternate' (used to be called 'Install') and 'Server'. The Live CD includes the Gnome desktop that runs from the CD without affecting the HDD. However, it can also install to the HDD, essentially by copying the live CD filesystem onto your HDD. There were some issues with partitioning during the testing, but I think those were resolved by release time. The 'Alternate' CD installs the Gnome desktop environment from packages and takes a bit longer, but lets you configure some more things. The Desktop CD does not come with many of the server applications (LAMP, etc), so you would need to either get the server CD or install those from the archives. Ubuntu does not include anything that has a doubtful free (-speech) status on the CD---this includes many Wifi card drivers, Win modem drivers, Flash plugins, MP3 decoding, DVD playback, etc. But they are there in the archives. Ubuntu comes with a minimum of packages; it is a single CD, after all. You have to install the rest from the archives. Installing other packages from CD or from the archives is very easy. Uninstalling them is a bit more tricky. I was very impressed with the basic installation: a few questions at the start and then it just ran to the end. The Intel 3945 wireless network card (as in my Dell laptop) has a non-free driver. In my case, I just installed it from the network and it worked. You might like to install Network Manager too. This tries to ensure that you always have a network connection. If you have a Ethernet cable plugged in, it will use that. Otherwise, it will try to use a wireless network. At work, the ethernet network just worked. At a friend's house, I had to set up the network name and password, and they had to set up the MAC address, but after that, it too just worked. All in all, I have been quite impressed with the Debian packaging system, and Ubuntu's selection of packages. I have the Alternate (Install) CD and can burn you a copy this evening, if you want. Phone 359-3542 (Bishopdale area). Stephen Phill Coxon wrote: > Hi, > > I've just bought a new Acer laptop which will be delivered today. > > I need a great version of linux to run to dual boot with Windows XP > (bah! - my partner won't let me delete it :) on the laptop. > > I've been using Mandrake / Mandriva for the last few years but I've had > enough of their crappy new corporate focus so I'm looking for a change. > > What recommendations can you make for a new flavour of linux that has a > simple dual boot install process into an existing Windows XP laptop? > > Most of the work I'll be doing on it will be email, open office, general > desktop use, VMware, samba, Apache 2, ssh etc. > > Probably the most feature I need is easy to set up wireless networking. > > I'm leaving for Auckland on Tuesday and need to have wireless networking > set up and working before then. The last time I tried to set up wireless > networking 18 months ago it was a nightmare of cryptic configuration > files. > > So... recommendations? > > Ubantu maybe? I've been itching to try a debian solution for some > time. > > Bonus points if you have a copy of the latest version of that > distribution on CD / DVD that I could pick up tomorrow in exchange for a > reasonable copying fee. > > Thanks! > > > > ======================================================================= This email, including any attachments, is only for the intended addressee. It is subject to copyright, is confidential and may be the subject of legal or other privilege, none of which is waived or lost by reason of this transmission. If the receiver is not the intended addressee, please accept our apologies, notify us by return, delete all copies and perform no other act on the email. Unfortunately, we cannot warrant that the email has not been altered or corrupted during transmission. =======================================================================
