hey guys.. i notice there are a lot of 'which laptop should i buy' threads here are my experiences of a couple of
distro's ..
first of all for those who don't know this model is a centrino 1.5 without bluetooth but it does have the dreaded intel 2200bg 802.11g wireless.. usb2.. i decided upon a debian based distro as all of my problems in the past have been dependency related and i have learned to appreciate apt

ubuntu 5.10 installs ok but i don't like gnome so i tried to apt-get kde and unfortunately the wireless didnt work.. i have a question about apt.. can it be affected by the router you are using?? i notice since i changed mine, apt doesnt work with my kubuntu distro on my ibook either.. since died.. :-(.. reinstall required.. my yellow dog crashes mid install, kubuntu was the only distro that would complete.. worked fine until apt problem.. battery ran out.. oops.. all of the apt sources will ping ok but trying to connect to them is hopeless.. they keep timing out..

debian 3.1 with the 2.4 kernel installs ok and then crashes with a segfault related to the usb2 module.. (i'd love to elaborate if anyone knows what the hell is going on)
2.6 kernel crashes almost immediately with 'irq9 edge set to level trigger'.. i assume this has something to do with acpi.. attempted boot with usbprobe=off and acpi=off results in same as 2.4 kernel when it finally gets that far.. hmm

finally stuck on suse 10.0 out of frustration.. 2.6 kernel.. worked ok including wireless.. yay.. trouble is it doesn't include the kernel source in the distro i have.. tried to yast it and had same wireless troubles.. don't like yast .. poor mans apt IMO.. didn't like wired ethernet at all.. so that stuffed that.. also sound didn't work .. and cos of the usual dependency issues couldn't load the modules for the tv.. not bad then but was annoyed about not having the sources

so to cap off.. if you have a centrino laptop with an intel g wireless.. i'd go for a proper version of suse 10 but get the source either on install or get your yast working.. otherwise kernel updates are out of the question.. oh yeah watch out for firefox .. it stalls.. i think it is because it has ipv6 by default.. didn't get to the bottom of that one (used konqueror instead)
a debian based distro is still the best for me (personal preference) but i can't get it to work.. if i could get the install working then the wireless drivers are available on sourceforge.. or you could use ndiswrapper.. i like the ubuntu distro's but they are so
cut down that they are highly dependent on your apt connection working flawlessly..

if anyone could help with the apt problem i'd appreciate it.. i recently changed to a netgear router/modem when the daughters wouldn't work and stupidly gave her my linksys wrt.. dooh..


regards