I got to buy a laptop as I will be needing one for college. I want something that will be fully compatible with linux so I can dual boot, because my desktop currently isn’t. I was looking at one from Dell, and I found something I liked. I checked on this site’s compatibility list to see if it was, and it wasn’t listed, so I tried looking for individual components on the compatibility list. And none of them were listed. So I’m wondering if anybody here can help me out to see if it will be compatible, or any suggestions on different laptops would be fine as well. Here are the specs of the rig I was looking at.

Inspiron 1720

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7100 (2MB cache/1.8GHz/800Mhz FSB)
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 Dimm
128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS
Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
Integrated Stereo High Definition Audio
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Mini-Card


Thanks to anybody that took the time to look at this, and again, if you have any suggestions of other products please let me know.

Looking over the specs, here's my opinion.


I've never tried a Dell Wireless card under linux, but the processor should be ok, I know the RAM is good, the graphics'll do fine especially if you install the nvidia proprietary driver. The modem will work and the NIC is probably covered with the tulip driver.

So to summerize, as long as you don't try to install an outdated distro, you shouldn't have any problems (looks like a good Debian/Ubuntu canidate)

well for an extra 40 dollars I can get IntelJ3945 802.11a/g Mini-card

if this is compatible I will add it, unless somebody here tells me the dell wireless card is fine

but what about the audio? you didn't say anything about that.

If you look on the US Dell website under OpenSource PC & Notebooks you'll find they use the 3945 card so it works with Ubuntu. I built an Inspiron 1300 with Suse 10.1 which has a Dell Wireless 1370 mini-PCI which is actually a Broadcom BCM4318. It took a bit of work with ndiswrapper, but it works fine.

If you want a dual-boot, I suggest you buy with pre-installed XP rather than Vista, then download the OEM Ubuntu 7.04 and install from that. There's no point in trying to test with the live CD, as you can't configure the wireless driver without a lot of messing about.

yeah well I was gonna take vista out, and put in XP, cause they don't seem to give me the option of having XP, maybe if I email them, I dunno... cause I don't wanna touch vista for at least a year or two.

Vista would run just fine on that system. My laptop currently is a dual Windows Vista/Debian Etch box with one major problem - I only have 384MB RAM availible to Vista.

You might try Emperor Linux (http://www.emperorlinux.com/ ) or Linux Certified (http://www.linuxcertified.com/). Both sell laptops preconfigured with your choice of Linux distro and, optionally, Windows. Havn't had any experience with Emperor but I've had a Linux Certified laptop for years, am very happy with it. If your on a budget I think LC sells refurbished laptops for around 700 USD.

Just caught up with this one, and spotted it should be http://www.linuxcertified.com/index.html