New Dell and Linux install experience

[keith smith]

Hi everyone.

Wanted to share an experience with the group.  I bought a Dell 2.8G 
Intel duo / 1Gig RAM / 160G HD / 19 inch flat panel late November for 
about what lesser components to upgrade my old 500 MHz dev box would have 
cost.  

Thanks to Nathan in Payson I bought a Dell with much more.  I must add 
I'm extremely happy!

I finally loaded Linux on it Friday.  It took only an hour or so to do 
the install, however it took all day to find a distro that would find 
the flat panel and NIC.  I tried Fedora Core 4 - bombed right away on 
the display driver.  Xubuntu 6.06, Ubuntu 6, and Ubuntu 6 - alternate.  
Either they could not find the NIC or the flat panel diver.  These guys 
required that I get much deeper into the install before the problem 
occurred.  Not as much fun as finding out right away!

So after numerous attempts and several hours of frustration, I 
downloaded Fedora 6.  This was also an interesting experience.  Starting at 
about 4:30pm on Friday I tried to download from only west coast servers.  
Several were at like 17kbs .... telling me it was going to be 2 1/2 
hours.  Then I happened upon one of the west coast university servers.  It 
took 11 or 12 minutes per disk.  Maybe it had something to do with Good 
Weather, South Coast (beach), and University Students. There are 5 
disks plus a rescue disk.  A little multi-tasking and I was burning and 
installing at the same time.

Fedora found all my hardware and setup completely.  A few more 
packages and I was home free.

Just thought I would share my experience.  This is my second Dell in as 
many years.  The other Dell works well for my wife.  
I'm finding they have great deals on great hardware.

Keith


Keith Smith 
A link from my website to yours
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