[TriLUG] Linux for Laptops?

[Jason Tower]

i'm running suse92 on my T42.  the cpu throttling works great with the 
pentium m, as does wireless (centrino using the ipw2200 module) and 
bluetooth.

jason

Randy Barlow wrote:
> I'm a student and so I had to keep a PC around with Sata... I mean, 
> Microsoft Windows for some programs (well yeah, I could use Wine too, 
> but the stories I've heard about getting it to work made me just go the 
> easy route...)  So now that the semester is winding down, I think I'd 
> like to switch this system over (well, back) to Linux.  This system used 
> to run FC3.  Now I don't want to start any distro wars or anything, 
> but... I didn't really like FC3 for the laptop because every time I 
> updated the system packages (like the kernel) I had to go an reinstall 
> all the wireless stuff, which was a real pain.
> 
> So I'm looking for recommendations on any distributions that are really 
> laptop friendly.  Here's a list of things that are important to me (in 
> order):
> 
> 1) Wireless has to work, and preferably easy.  By easy, I'd like to not 
> have to do anything.  Install it and it works.  Maybe this isn't 
> possible, but I thought I'd ask anyway just in case.
> 
> 2) Package Management.  Just something that makes getting the software I 
> want and keeping it up to date easy (including the aforementioned 
> wireless stuff).  And it would be nice if it had lots of software to 
> choose from, so I don't have to do too many manual installs.
> 
> 3) Power Management would be nice.  I've got the Pentium-M.  If you 
> don't know much about it, it is incredible when it comes to saving those 
> laptop batteries.  I've got a machine with a 15" screen that will last 
> literally 4 1/2 hours on battery, so long as I turn down things like the 
> brightness of the screen and the clock frequency of the processor.  If 
> there were a distro that were already set up with these or similar 
> capabilities upon install, that would be awesome.
> 
> 4) Trying something new.  At this point, I'd call myself an amateur in 
> my Linux/Unix skills.  I'm no expert or advanced user, but no beginner 
> either.  I've run Red Hat 6,7, and FC 2 and 3 before, and currently as I 
> mentioned previously I'm running Gentoo on my main computer (and I love 
> Gentoo!).  But you know, I'd like to get a taste of what else is out 
> there, so something new would be refreshing.
> 
> 5) Optimization for Pentium-M.  Well, Gentoo is the best way I can think 
> of the achieve this, but Gentoo also requires you to take vacation time 
> to install.  Any distro that offers a precompiled version for the 
> Pentium-M would be nice, especially if their package manager can also 
> get me optimized software.  I'd much rather have the previous 
> requirements than this one, but hey, I'll take this too if it's out there!
> 
> Thanks for any responses or thoughts you may all have!
> 
> Randy Barlow
>