[TriLUG] Linux for Laptops?

Jason Tower jason at cerient.net
Wed Apr 20 23:32:30 EDT 2005


i'm running suse92 on my T42.  the cpu throttling works great with the 
pentium m, as does wireless (centrino using the ipw2200 module) and 
bluetooth.

jason

Randy Barlow wrote:
> I'm a student and so I had to keep a PC around with Sata... I mean, 
> Microsoft Windows for some programs (well yeah, I could use Wine too, 
> but the stories I've heard about getting it to work made me just go the 
> easy route...)  So now that the semester is winding down, I think I'd 
> like to switch this system over (well, back) to Linux.  This system used 
> to run FC3.  Now I don't want to start any distro wars or anything, 
> but... I didn't really like FC3 for the laptop because every time I 
> updated the system packages (like the kernel) I had to go an reinstall 
> all the wireless stuff, which was a real pain.
> 
> So I'm looking for recommendations on any distributions that are really 
> laptop friendly.  Here's a list of things that are important to me (in 
> order):
> 
> 1) Wireless has to work, and preferably easy.  By easy, I'd like to not 
> have to do anything.  Install it and it works.  Maybe this isn't 
> possible, but I thought I'd ask anyway just in case.
> 
> 2) Package Management.  Just something that makes getting the software I 
> want and keeping it up to date easy (including the aforementioned 
> wireless stuff).  And it would be nice if it had lots of software to 
> choose from, so I don't have to do too many manual installs.
> 
> 3) Power Management would be nice.  I've got the Pentium-M.  If you 
> don't know much about it, it is incredible when it comes to saving those 
> laptop batteries.  I've got a machine with a 15" screen that will last 
> literally 4 1/2 hours on battery, so long as I turn down things like the 
> brightness of the screen and the clock frequency of the processor.  If 
> there were a distro that were already set up with these or similar 
> capabilities upon install, that would be awesome.
> 
> 4) Trying something new.  At this point, I'd call myself an amateur in 
> my Linux/Unix skills.  I'm no expert or advanced user, but no beginner 
> either.  I've run Red Hat 6,7, and FC 2 and 3 before, and currently as I 
> mentioned previously I'm running Gentoo on my main computer (and I love 
> Gentoo!).  But you know, I'd like to get a taste of what else is out 
> there, so something new would be refreshing.
> 
> 5) Optimization for Pentium-M.  Well, Gentoo is the best way I can think 
> of the achieve this, but Gentoo also requires you to take vacation time 
> to install.  Any distro that offers a precompiled version for the 
> Pentium-M would be nice, especially if their package manager can also 
> get me optimized software.  I'd much rather have the previous 
> requirements than this one, but hey, I'll take this too if it's out there!
> 
> Thanks for any responses or thoughts you may all have!
> 
> Randy Barlow
> 



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