A while back I wrote about my trials trying to install Ubuntu on my old, crappy lappy, and I reported that I had killed the machine. So, for the past few months I have been drooling over various and sundry new laptops, knowing full well that I cannot afford chalk, never mind a new laptop, on what I make.
So, last night I pulled out the hulking monster and fired it up. Last time I did this, the display was all eff'd up, I had no drivers, and it just shut down randomly. Last night, stupid thing booted up fine. I still had no drivers, and after screwing with it for A LONG TIME, I finally figured out what I was doing wrong (duh, those check marks don't mean the driver is installed, they mean that THAT driver SHOULD be installed), I used the disk my good buddy sent me (thanks, buddy!), and voila - it's running fine. It still won't load Ubuntu or Freespire, but, whatever, it works.
I still hope to be able to in stall Linux on it at some point, but in the meantime I am going to set it up with Open Source and free software. This is a step I have not yet taken with my desktop (mostly because it's my main machine, and I NEED it to do what I need it to do, and I'm terrified I'll break the damn thing). But, if things go the way I hope, I will probably spend the next rainy day loading Ubuntu or Freespire (Freespire is pretty cool) on the main computer and creating a double-boot configuration. Yeah, wish me luck with that!
Hey, anyone out there have a junky Dell Inspiron 1100 (no laughing! I'm poor!) that has bit the dust? Can I have the RAM out of it?
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Now playing: Duran Duran - Come Undone
via FoxyTunes
2 comments:
It wasn't dead, it was mostly dead.
My Dell Inspiron 1100 has been a bit moody when booting up. Most of the time, it freezes up and dies before Ubuntu can actually load. I have to restart it, sometimes two or three times. I'm wondering if maybe I should just invest in a new laptop (not that I have the money to do so). If I do, you can have my RAM.
Found you via http://www.blogrefs.com/topic/ubuntu
I've put Ubuntu on 3 machines. I've been very happy with it but it is a little slow on my old laptop. But then so was Windows XP. I've read that there are other versions of Linux that are not as popular but are faster on older equipment.
I picked Ubuntu because Google is supposed to be using it in-house and I figured there would be good support.
I made the switch after installing Vista on my home machine. It wouldn't upgrade from XP, so I had to do a fresh install. It wouldn't let me delete files on my second disk. It was annoying in many ways. I can boot Vista as well as Ubuntu. But I don't.
I still use XP on my laptop because Ubuntu won't hibernate cleanly.
I guess I'm trying to say that I think it's a good decision to go with Linux but maybe look around for a "stripped" version.
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