[TriLUG] Linux for Laptops?

[Rock Roskam]

Ubuntu is looking pretty good on my last install.  I have not switched my notebook yet.
1. Try the netapplet for wireless monitoring.
2. Use apt-get and synaptic
3. From the forums it looks like it does a pretty good job on the ACPI functions.  I need to try on my system soon.
4. Ubuntu is rapidly becoming a big distribution.
5. Not sure but you would problably have to recompile the kernel.  


Rock 

-----Original Message-----
From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org] On Behalf Of Randy Barlow
Sent: Wednesday, April 20, 2005 11:00 PM
To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
Subject: [TriLUG] Linux for Laptops?

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

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