New Linux User on Inspiron 8200
 

I am ready to take the plunge into Linux on my laptop

Inspiron 8200
P4-M 2.0ghz
512 Ram
15 in UXGA display
Radeon Mobility 9000 w/ 64 mb RAM
Matshita dvd/CD-RW combo Drive
D-Link DWL-650 Wireless B PC Card


Anyone have a similar laptop who could recommend a fairly trouble free Linux Install? I understand that no install can be guaranteed, but I'm not totally adept with PCs and too many problems will just be more than I can handle. I'm just looking for a good distro that is easy on the install for a doofus like me and will have a decent learning curve.

I've been leaning to using Suse 9.1 Professional, but I will welcome any other recommendations....I tried out Knoppix 3.4 on a bootable CD and navigated around pretty good, so I feel I am ready to install something next to XP Pro and mess with it while I am not in school and can afford to mess up a PC

I think that, just from reading your post, it's a reasonable assumption that you can pick any distro, aside from the advanced ones (Gentoo Stage 1, LFS, etc...) and be just fine. Shop around, find out what you like, what you don't like, etc. Pick one, get all the docs you can for it, and good luck...

I have an 8200 with almost the same setup:

Inspiron 8200
P4-M 2.4GHz
1 GB RAM
15" Display
Radeon Mobility 9000
D-Link DWL-650+ Wireless card

The only thing I ever really had a problem with is the wireless card.

I have successfully used RedHat (9 & Fedora), and Slackware (9.1 and 10).

My personal favorite is Slackware.

To get help with your Wireless card, check out this site (it helped me out alot):
http://www.houseofcraig.net/acx100_howto.php

Mindfrost, is that Fedora Core 1 or 2?

If it is 2, then do I use the I386 version?

I have various Distros at my disposal, so my options are limited....

I didn't care too much for RedHat/Fedora....but when I installed it, only Fedora Core 1 was available.

Yes, you would want the x86 version.

If you're new to Linux, you may want to try Mandrake...I started out with that one and it seemed fairly simple to install. You'll still need to go to that website for your wireless card...unless they have added support for it since I used it last.

OK...I have Mandrake 10 and I'll give it a whirl

I would try that as a starter. If you don't like that...you can try Fedora...but some stuff is similar between the two. Slackware is different, and if you really want to learn linux stuff, I highly recommend that. I've tried RedHat 9, Fedora Core 1&2, Gentoo, Mandrake, Suse, Debian, and Slackware...out of all those, I like Slackware the best...but its all just preference.

mine is a

P-M 1.6GHz
640MB RAM
UXGA
nVidia-go

Am wondering if you were able to connect another VGA monitor to the laptop so you can work on both at the same time? I couldn't figure it out.

SuSE 9.1 was extremely unstable when I was using it. Fresh install, no junk packages. Quanta+ was chrashing in 15 min periods, Konqueror was chrashing everytime I ran it, OOo did not even start, well the splash showed up but the it chrashed... I don't have time to tweak the system I just need to use it to do some 'real' work.

I'm back on Winblows now :(

That's one thing I never tried. I think when you do your xf86config or xorgconfig there's an option for the display, and you can choose different things for an external display. If its not in there, then I saw it when I ran fglxconfig (or something like that) after installing my ATI Mobility 9000 drivers.