I compiled a kernel to get around the 4k-stack issue with Fedora stock kernels, but this is no longer necessary with the 6106 version of the nVidia drivers.

Out the box, everything ran fine, with the following additions:

Touchpad driver:
http://w1.894.telia.com/~u89404340/touchpad/index.html

nVidia driver:
http://www.nvidia.com/content/drivers/drivers.asp

Access to NTFS drives (if you don't add it into your own compiled kernel):
http://linux-ntfs.sourceforge.net/rpm/fedora2.html

Access to Firewire drives (if not supported by your kernel version):
http://www.ic.unicamp.br/~oliva/snapshots/FC2-firewire/
http://people.redhat.com/aoliva/snapshots/FC2-firewire/

The built-in Broadcom Ethernet card worked fine with nothing special. Same for the built-in soundcard. I have not tried the built-in modem (Conexant) at all so I can't report on that, and I have not gotten to fooling with the TrueMobile 1300 mini-PCI wireless (Broadcom) card yet, but that will need ndiswrapper or a Linuxant driver loader, apparently.

Overall, everything was easy to get working, easy to find, and runs great. My screen is the 1400 x 1050 and the nVidia FX Go 5200 card is the 32 meg version.

I have not been able to get the modem to work.

All download of module from web and various attempt have failled.

The linmodem replies to the AT command but does not actually dials.

Everything else works strait out of the box with Suse 9.0.

My only problem so far is ascpi, have to force noacpi.

I got ndiswrapper to work beautifully with the Truemobile 1400 wirless card. you need kernel 2.6 or better. I couldnt get it to work till I upgraded to Mandrake 10.1 I finally saw the card.still didnt have a module, but it was easy to compile ndiswrapper after that.

Havent tried to run the modem, I dont really need it.

Havent tried the firewire, but looks like loaded ok.

Sound and video great.

cd burner great

Steadily I'm getting everything to work just fine as a first time linux user! Gentoo went up super easy on the first install. I had to recompile the kernel once to add some compatibility since I used genkernel the first time, but I'd definately recommend installing linux on your Inspiron 5150!

I had no installation problems.

Had to install the Nvidia drivers for the FX5200 grafics card.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/unix.html

Using Orinoco gold classic for wireless.

Power management did not work by default.

Otherwise excellent support.

great hardware for linux
slack work perfectly (starting from 9.0)
some minor issue with acpi and alsa (...work in progress...)

display 1600x1200

Install was good. Since I am new to Linux, I have lots to learn.
Nvida driver works well
FUSE/NTFS-3g works well to read/write on windows.
USB printer and external hard drive work well.

Problems:
Conextant modem was a nightmare. You have to pay $20.00 for the driver :(
Lots of problems getting the modem to fax.

Computer tends to overheat. I have a program call dellfand which works well to control the fan. That is the first thing I untar after slackware install.

I was never able to get ndiswrapper to work properly. So I bought a netgear card which works beautifully.