After hearing about the new release of Ubuntu 5.04, I thought I would give the live version a try. I choose the Live-DVD figuring it would contain more content related to hardware detection. So I left my bittorrent client on for a couple hours--burnt it and rebooted.

Amazingly it found and configured everything, except for the fingerprint scanner because support only exists under the Windows XP platform. I am running a IBM T42 laptop, with just about all the bells and whistles. The mousepad was correctly setup--including the eraser joystick mouse. Wireless networking was configured after I fed it the WEP key. I currently have 90% battery life left which equates to 2hrs and 15min. My sound works great and that includes the rubbery volume buttons on the keyboard. My ATI FIREGL T2 is running at 1600x1200 and no ghosting issues. I am thoroughly impressed.

I would switch to this distrobution in a heartbeat but the university uses windows based engineering software particularly 'Solidworks' and 'MathLabs'--with no Linux port available. So I have to keep my windows install for now. I will just have to use the Live-DVD for now. Which really isn't a big deal because it already blazing fast on this setup.

I checked out the IBM support site and discovered the IBM products unlike others spend a significant portion of this devolpment in Linux supports--IBM's stock just went up in 'my book'.

Thanks Ubuntu. Thoroughly impressed.
You guys and gals understand the concept of creating a product that "just works, no questions asked". I'd like to see a top-of-the-line Dell notebook try to have this much the success in hardware compatibility, configuration, stability, and performance.

Are there any other IBM users out their that rejoice because of linux compatibility? Because when kernel and hardware meet seamlessly--its a beautiful thing.

i've been running ubuntu 5.04 on my T42 for about the past 3 months, and never had an issue.

here at RPI, many students choose to dual-boot linux on their laptops, and ubuntu is definately a great choice. I'm looking forward to trying out 5.10 when the time comes.

If you want to get all those bells and whistles going, and get a couple tweaks in... this site does absolute wonders:
http://www.columbia.edu/~em36/ubuntu...inkpadt42.html

I'm sure you'll love being able to get all those little things working, let me know what you think :P


Just a warning, be careful when upgrading powernow, i had issues with it