Well hello there. :]


I've had hardware issues in the past with my laptop so I thought I would ask the gurus today to see what kind of advice I could get.

Anyways,
I have a Dell Latitude D530 laptop.

Intel Core 2 Duo running @ 2ghz
1GB of ram
80GB HDD
Intel Graphics Media Accelerator
High Definition Audio codec speaker

but my main concern in the Broadcom 802.11 Multibrand Network Adapter.

What distribution would you recommend with this set up??
I'm desperate to get rid of Vista for the 3rd time, so any help would be appreciated.


:]


-emoric

Yeah, ideally you would use a distribution, but other options exist. I do reccomend that you try it, and trying out a live CD, as always, makes sense as a 'dip your toes in the water' measure.

Any particular reason that you don't like the answers is the other 'select a distro for me' threads?

If you want a desktop OS that is very easy to use and has good support try LinuxMint

It is Ubuntu based so you have the full range of Ubuntu repositories for applications and support.

I've been using Xubuntu on my laptop for a while. It's very nice on lower RAM and memory machines.

To give it a good test, download the Xubuntu iso file and then download wubi (http://wubi.sourceforge.net/), put them both in the same folder and run Wubi. You can see how well it works without hurting your files, and also test out if you wireless card works. That's what I did, and it works out pretty well.

I've got a Broadcom Wireless card too, and mine works well in Xubuntu, just FYI.

Searching for your laptop at www.google.com/linux shows few calls for help and several firms selling the machine with Linux pre-installed, which suggests that the hardware is all Linux-friendly.

Thnx for the replies guys!!

Well, I ended up installing Ubuntu 7.10 then shortly went to 8.04. Sound needed drivers, broadcom need propriety driver of course, and some other light tweaking made ubuntu usable.

I'm on a Dell Latitude D530 - and Ubuntu works flawlessly.