Linux Hardware Compatability Questions

Hello Everyone,

I have a little bit of Unix experience through a previous job, and have never worked on a Linux system. I have always wanted to try Linux out but never made it a priority.

Through the assistance of many great users on this site I have purchased a Sager NP2090 laptop. Previously I used my laptop that had lower performance while on the road for purely business purposes. I had my desktop at home for everything else. Now that I am getting a much more powerful laptop I plan to use it for both business and personal tasks running Windows. I need to run Windows on this machine so as not to hurt my business performance due to lack of familiarity with Linux based OSs.

This leaves my Dell Dimension 3000 Desktop as the perfect candidate for someone who has always wanted to experiment with Linux and it's open source capabilities. I don't mind doing some work to get things working, but for someone who is unfamiliar with Linux I want to make sure there will be some type of way to run Linux on this hardware.

Would I have any issues running Linux on my Dell desktop or do I need to purchase a machine specifically built to run the Linux OS?

I have only just started researching Linux the possibility of running Linux on my desktop this weekend and have spent many hours reading a lot of different information, although I believe many of the complaints I am seeing are not due to incompatability with their hardware, but their not being willing to find a way of making it work. Prior to making the jump I wanted to make sure this was the case.

I plan on trying Ubuntu as it appears to be the most popular one for new users making the switch, and a lot of people seem to have quick success with it. I have read through all of the stickies and many posts on this forum and that seems to be a strong concensus here as well.

Thanks in advance for any help! If you need to know any specifics about my hardware to make such a conclusion please let me know.

 

Your Dimension looks like it'd be fine. I think Ubuntu is distro to start with, as well, good choice there.

You can always just try the Ubuntu LiveCD and see how the hardware support matches up out of box, you may be pleasantly surprised to have everything work. (Or you might have all sorts of problems, but, who knows?)

In any case, I say, you have nothing to lose, monetarily at least, so, just give it a shot.

 

What's the difference between the Ubuntu LiveCD vs the LiveDVD? I really enjoy installing from the DVD. After install, pretty much everything worked. Wireless and sound were perfect. CPU was pre-set to automatic scaling. But for me, my suspend and hibernate don't work.

But again, that's just me. Perhaps like t12ek says, linux may work 100% after install. Or it might not.

I'm on an Asus F3Jm, to clarify on my system specs.

 

What LiveDVD are you talking about? Looking at the Ubuntu site, I don't see any LiveDVD at all, only the CD.

Maybe the LiveDVD is some non-official disk that a user put together? Show me a link to where you're seeing this LiveDVD, I'm curious about this as well.

 

You've never seen it? Really?

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/7.04/release/

Granted, I personally have not used it because I don't feel like downloading 4GB when 700MB gets the job done just fine, but...

- Trip

 

Hmm, that's interesting, but... how do you even get to that page from the Ubuntu homepage? If I ever need an Ubuntu ISO, I just go to Ubuntu.com, click on "Download Now" select my mirror (usually Columbia University, it's the closest to where I am), and it gives me the ISO for the LiveCD...

Even browsing to the Columbia mirror's download page doesn't have the LiveDVD...

In any case, without actually trying the LiveDVD (I don't have any blank DVDs at the moment), my best guess is that compared to the LiveCD, it just comes with more packages, but since there are likely updates online once you install the system, I don't see a good reason to use the LiveDVD unless you have a slow internet connection (and can download the LiveDVD at a friend's place)

 

I browsed their site for a while yesterday when I was researching my decision to switch and never came across the DVD either. I already downloaded and burnt the LiveCD yesterday so hopefully it will work. If I run into problems I will come back to this link and see if anything on the LiveDVD is more helpful.

 

You know, that's a great question. I've got NO clue how I managed to come across the LiveDVD.

 

I vaguely recall hearing about a DVD somewhere, and then a few weeks ago got bored and searched for it on Google.

- Trip

 

To get to the LiveDVD, you have to go to the website, then click "Download," scroll to the bottom of the page and click "complete list of download locations and other download options," then scroll down to "DVD Releases." I've never seen this before, but searched for it on the site and found it. I wonder what the difference is? I know that On-Disk.com and The Linux Store offer DVD sets that contain all the repos on DVD, but I've never seen a DVD from Ubuntu before.