I am looking for a good Linux distribution for my Dell Inspiron 1000. I use it for wireless and wired internet, so I need a linux for both.


Please help, my laptop is getting slow with XP, and I like how Mandrive worked on here for a short time. Plus, I'm tired of windows. Since I can't upgrade to Vista, I'm turning to Linux.


Software I need (will W.I.N.E work for these?):
-Xfire
-Xbox Connect
-Halo Combat Evolved (and Custom Edition)
-Web Browsing


Hardware:
-Dell TrueMobil Wireless Network Card
-Lexmark 3100 printer
-Phillips GoGear MP3 Player
-External Floppy Drive


Computer Specs:
Model: Dell Inspiron 1000
Processer: Celeron running at 2.2GHz
Ram: 224MBs (odd number...)
Harddrive: 40 Gigs (2 partitions, one running XP and other backup, Even space



Thank You! iamthesargent

P.S. I am running Mandriva (PenDriveLinux) Right now for those people who want to know, But it doesnt FIT my needs...

I have an Inspiron 1300 running Suse 11.1, and everything pretty much worked out of the box. Before you start, I suggest you download and burn a PartedMagic Live CD from here

Use the Hardware Lister tool from the Start menu to find out about your hardware. You should also use it to get your partitions set-up before doing an install.

Most WiFi cards are supported "natively" in Suse 11.1. The 1300 has a Broadcom (though Windows says it's a Dell!), and it worked straight off.

I also have Suse 11 on an Acer which has an IPN2200 and that now works with minimal fiddling (need to manually install the Win XP drivers using NDISWRAPPER)

I have tried Ubuntu 10, and that seems to work as well, but I prefer Suse as it is more customisable. Fedora is as good, but I like then KDE desktop and Suse seems to work better with it. If you like the Gnome desktop then try Fedora.

Lexmark do Linux drivers for all their printers, even the multi-functions. I've stuck to Brother or HP because the driver support is very good.

Most of the MP3 players I've tried work fine, even if only as external USB drives. I have a Sandisc SansClip, and I make playlist with Kaffeine, save them as M3U, copy them across and they work fine.

I have USB external IDE & SATA drives, and I have used other people USB floppies. USB Flash drives work fine.

For browsing I use Firefox, but also have Konqueror & Opera for testing, & Internet Explorer 6 via Wine.

I don't play those sort of games, but I am told that most of the top ones have a Linux version or will run with Wine or Virtual Box.

I suggest you download some Live CD's and have a play.

Good luck

The Gaming is gonna be difficult. They might work, they might not.. What video device does the laptop have?

Lexmark printers typically have pretty good Linux support (at least in my experience)... I've gotten a couple of Lexmark Printers going under Ubuntu, but never that particular model.

The Wireless device, we really need to know the chipset of the device. Just from looking on Google, it looks like its a Broadcom. Can't speak for other distributions, but you should be able to get it to work under Ubuntu, it just requires a bit of work.

Again, using Google, it looks like those Go Gear MP3 players, are pretty hit and miss (with a lot more miss than hit). I'm guessing you can get it to work w/ Intrepid, most of the posts I found regarding it, were from version 7.10.

What would I do? Well, downloading some Live CDs, is a good suggestion. Those games are really pushing the specs of that laptop.

I would look on Ebay, and find some stuff to upgrade that laptop a bit. I've got an old Compaq laptop (similar specs to yours). I was able to upgrade the hard drive from 20, to 100gig, and max the Ram out(1gig), for $120.

I'm surprised those games even start under Windows, with specs that low.

IGF

ROFL I KNOW!!! every time i try and play them, my CPU overheats and burns my f--king lap. Not exactly a plesant feeling. I was going to try and get one of those 2 gig memory stick for laptops at walmart. That should be enough right?

are you saying 2gigs of internal memory?.. if so, yes, that would be plenty. If you're talking about trying to install to a 2gig USB drive, then no, that would most likely not be acceptable...

Go to crucial.com and use the memory configurator to see what kind memory your laptop needs, then search around on ebay, tigerdirect.com and newegg.com, for the best price.

IGF