Well, I got what I thought was a good deal on a laptop.
Two problems (well, three, one of which is caused by the other). First, the integrated WLAN adaptor doesn't seem to work. That's an annoyance, but I have a USB adaptor. More seriously, it doesn't seem to accept Linux. When I tried to do a Fedora 9 install, it hung on one of the devices. It didn't occur to me to check to see if it was compatible with Linux--I had just assumed that it had evolved to the point where that wasn't an issue any more. So I'm considering returning, but not sure how to avoid the problem in the future.
Oh, the third problem? It comes with Vista installed. I hadn't cared when I thought that it would running Linux most of the time, but now it's an issue.
Couple of quick suggestions.
First, grab a copy of Ubuntu or Knoppix and see if they recognize your hardware. (If you're dead set on Fedora, at least they may let you figure out what to do to the kernel to get it to boot.)
Second, try one of the BSD variants. PC-BSD is supposed to be moderately user-friendly, and it's based on FreeBSD, which has been concentrating on Intel support, rather than the 'a little bit of everything that the NetBSD variant is persuing.
Hmmmmm.
Vista. Who on earth tested Vista and thought "well this is cool!"??
Fedora has a LiveCD so that you can test. Later it's possible to install off it, although I personally never did. It's my job to fix such issues anyway, so I would tinker with the kernel and the distro until it worked.
BTW, what does "hung on one of devices" mean?
I took "Hung on a device" to mean that the kernel locked up while trying to initialize part of the laptop's hardware.
I took "Hung on a device" to mean that the kernel locked up while trying to initialize part of the laptop's hardware.
Right.
Was this a new or a refurbished laptop?
If it's the latter -- I'm testifying after buying something similar from TigerDirect about six months ago -- you'll likely find the Windows Vista that has been installed is a 32-bit single processor version that has not been registered with Microsoft. It's an OS that isn't especially legal, and isn't really going to make full use of your hardware, in other words.
And if that's the case, my feeling is you should feel free to return the laptop for full credit even if you wiped off the Vista installation. No guarantees the Best Buy people will agree, of course, but morally ....
Meanwhile, try Debian.
-ms
No, it's new. And I haven't wiped Vista, and didn't intend to. I was going to make it dual boot, but so far, I haven't been able to.
There are issues with dual boot and vista, so even if the unix install had succeeded, you might have ended up with a brick, or might end up with one in the future when vista upgrades itself.
There are issues with dual boot and vista, so even if the unix install had succeeded, you might have ended up with a brick, or might end up with one in the future when vista upgrades itself.
Great. So M$ philosophy is thou shalt have no other OSs before me?
What do I have to do, upgrade to XP?
Hmmmm.
"What do I have to do, upgrade to XP?"
No can do. XP has been deprecated by Microsoft. No new sales of XP other than through OEM.
Yeah. It's a crap sandwich.
Personally I have no idea what I'm going to do. For my job I need .NET so it's got to be either Vista or XP.
Maybe I need to change my skill set.
No new sales of XP other than through OEM.
I saw it for sale at Office Depot this week for a hundred bucks.
Hmmmm.
"I saw it for sale at Office Depot this week for a hundred bucks."
Color me extremely surprised.
Here's what Microsoft has to say:
Windows XP: The facts about the future
"Last year you told us you weren't quite ready to say goodbye to Windows XP. We listened. That's why we delayed our plan to stop selling it until June 30, 2008."
"After careful consultation with our customers and industry partners, we've decided to proceed with our plan to phase out Windows XP in June. It'll be a long goodbye. We plan to provide support for Windows XP until 2014."
I suggest you buy that copy. You'll be able to sell it for big bucks in a couple years when some corporate computer needs a copy and there aren't any for sale.
Hmmmm.
Yeah it's the long hard goodbye. Like that line out of "Sin City": "These are the old days, the bad days, the all-or-nothing days. They're back!".
It's like having Windows ME and Microsoft "Bob" all over again.
...
On another note. My mouse has started doing some weird stuff lately. Occasionally the mouse cursor will fly all over the place for no apparent reason. I've checked for viruses, malware and spyware but nothing came up.
Any ideas?
memomachine:
If it's a mouse with a ball, clean the ball and use canned air to blow the dust out of the optical sensors. You may have to scrape some crud off of the little rollers that ride the ball as well.
If it's an optical mouse, change your mouse pad.
In either case, look at the back of the computer to see if your cat or your kid has been chewing on the mouse wire.
Do you have a KVM switch? That can cause mouse problems as well. I've seen it happen sometimes when I switch from one machine to the other.
Hmmm.
"If it's an optical mouse, change your mouse pad."
It's an optical mouse so I'll try a new mouse pad and see if that works.
Thanks!