Ubuntu 7.10 offered on Dell PCs

Timothy Daniels wrote:

> Announced yesterday (Wednesday, Jan 29th), were Dell PCs
> offered with Ubuntu v.7.10 (the "Gutsy Gibbon" distro) flavor
> of Linux in the U.S.. See www.Dell.com/ubuntu . Right now,
> neither the Tech Support nor Sales frontline staff are aware of it,
> but supervisors indicate that training sessions are imminent regarding
> Ubuntu. Here is the Ubuntu PC selection:
>
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/s...=19&l=en&s=dhs
> For the Ubuntu XPS M1330 laptop, the LED backlit is an option,
> but only integrated chip graphics is available (not the nVidia card).
> The installation DVD includes a "player" for the DVD drive, which
> I think is the driver, but one would have to locate an nVidia driver
> for M1330 laptops with a graphics card. As of now, though, the
> Dell Sales staff hasn't a clue on how to order just the DVD.
>
> I would expect that there will lots of inquiries to this NG about
> dual-booting Vista and Ubuntu and how to slipstream drivers into
> an installation DVD in the weeks ahead. Prepare yourselves! :-)
>
> *TimDaniels*

Too bad they don't sell it pre loaded on any of the Latitude line.

Announced yesterday (Wednesday, Jan 29th), were Dell PCs
offered with Ubuntu v.7.10 (the "Gutsy Gibbon" distro) flavor
of Linux in the U.S.. See www.Dell.com/ubuntu . Right now,
neither the Tech Support nor Sales frontline staff are aware of it,
but supervisors indicate that training sessions are imminent regarding
Ubuntu. Here is the Ubuntu PC selection:
http://www.dell.com/content/topics/s...=19&l=en&s=dhs
For the Ubuntu XPS M1330 laptop, the LED backlit is an option,
but only integrated chip graphics is available (not the nVidia card).
The installation DVD includes a "player" for the DVD drive, which
I think is the driver, but one would have to locate an nVidia driver
for M1330 laptops with a graphics card. As of now, though, the
Dell Sales staff hasn't a clue on how to order just the DVD.

I would expect that there will lots of inquiries to this NG about
dual-booting Vista and Ubuntu and how to slipstream drivers into
an installation DVD in the weeks ahead. Prepare yourselves! :-)

*TimDaniels*

Timothy Daniels wrote:
>
> Announced yesterday (Wednesday, Jan 29th), were Dell PCs
> offered with Ubuntu v.7.10 (the "Gutsy Gibbon" distro) flavor
> of Linux in the U.S.. See www.Dell.com/ubuntu . Right now,
> neither the Tech Support nor Sales frontline staff are aware of it,
> but supervisors indicate that training sessions are imminent regarding
> Ubuntu. Here is the Ubuntu PC selection:
> http://www.dell.com/content/topics/s...=19&l=en&s=dhs
> For the Ubuntu XPS M1330 laptop, the LED backlit is an option,
> but only integrated chip graphics is available (not the nVidia card).
> The installation DVD includes a "player" for the DVD drive, which
> I think is the driver, but one would have to locate an nVidia driver
> for M1330 laptops with a graphics card. As of now, though, the
> Dell Sales staff hasn't a clue on how to order just the DVD.
>
> I would expect that there will lots of inquiries to this NG about
> dual-booting Vista and Ubuntu and how to slipstream drivers into
> an installation DVD in the weeks ahead. Prepare yourselves! :-)
>
> *TimDaniels*

The last I tried, Ubuntu couldn't handle the Nvidia video card in the
Vostro 1500.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

FWIW, nVidia's web site has Linux Display Driver - x86 Version: 169.09, dated
January 21. nVidia tends to do omnibus drivers (unlike ATI), for which one
size fits all chips.

Oddly, Intel's web site does not show a Linux driver for the Graphics Media
Accelerator X3100 (aka G31, a desktop! chip), but somehow it has found its way
into the Linux distro used by Dell. It's out in the ether somewhere, too.

Slip-streaming is not a regular activity in the world of Linux, honest-to-gosh a
more hardware-friendly operating system than Windows. First, you install Linux
from the CD, and somehow Linux will find a best fit driver for your graphics
card, motherboard chipset, audio, and Ethernet. Next step is to find a driver
for your Linux distro in a repository somewhere, i.e. a place with a collection
of downloadable software. Then you download it and install it, either with a
lot of command line messing around logged in as root ('cause the Linux crowd
still thinks that real men execute command lines to do real work) or using some
sort of menu-driven Linux tool and/or a browser to do the installation in a more
civilized manner, without worrying about misplaced punctuation and the order of
parameters in text files.

I have been screwing around with Linux on an older PowerEdge 600SC to do a
simple file server for a small busines operation running Windows in a work
group, and to avoid Microsoft's atrocious server licensing fees.

So far, I've rejected Ubuntu 7.10 because a) I am not a real man, but an android
or b) I have to learn a lot of command line stuff to configure a file server or
c) I do not want to expose my clients to the brutal ugliness of Linux command
lines to do routine things like add and delete users or create file shares on
the server or d) all of the above.

On the other hand, OpenSuse 10.3 plus a couple of neat add-ons that work thru
Firefox made the job pretty easy, after I spent some time learning to navigate
and to find out what is where. Even with the learning time plus time to install
plus time to find stuff on the internet, I had a simple file and print server
with shares for two users in about two hours. Not sure if the stuff I added to
the system can also be added to Ubuntu to make it friendlier.

A 1.8GHz Celeron PowerEdge 600SC with 512MB is not a screamer, even with Linux,
but this is a project on the cheap for now. It could probably serve files very
nicely as it is, but the time it takes to do routine admin tasks is important. I
may stick a faster Celery chip in to save me time, then get some more ECC memory
on eBay.

I still have Fedora 8 and Mandriva 2008 on my short list of freely downloadable
Linux distros to try. Finally, tho this is not a Linux newsgroup, KDE sux,
along with all the stupid K-names like the Konqueror browser, KOffice, Konsole,
KRunner, and probably KFart, surely a special add-in for analog computing. The
Gnome interface is either very Windows-like or OS X-like, depending on your
orientation, and pretty easy to use. Why these Linux codeheads insist in TWO
user interface packages is beyond me. One is just fine. Some of the cutsie
Linux program names are annoying, just like they were back when Unix was a Bell
Labs research invention.

Now you, too, can set up a Linux server on your M1330... Ben Myers

On Wed, 30 Jan 2008 17:55:25 -0800, "Timothy Daniels"
<> wrote:

> Announced yesterday (Wednesday, Jan 29th), were Dell PCs
>offered with Ubuntu v.7.10 (the "Gutsy Gibbon" distro) flavor
>of Linux in the U.S.. See www.Dell.com/ubuntu . Right now,
>neither the Tech Support nor Sales frontline staff are aware of it,
>but supervisors indicate that training sessions are imminent regarding
>Ubuntu. Here is the Ubuntu PC selection:
>http://www.dell.com/content/topics/s...=19&l=en&s=dhs
>For the Ubuntu XPS M1330 laptop, the LED backlit is an option,
>but only integrated chip graphics is available (not the nVidia card).
>The installation DVD includes a "player" for the DVD drive, which
>I think is the driver, but one would have to locate an nVidia driver
>for M1330 laptops with a graphics card. As of now, though, the
>Dell Sales staff hasn't a clue on how to order just the DVD.
>
> I would expect that there will lots of inquiries to this NG about
>dual-booting Vista and Ubuntu and how to slipstream drivers into
>an installation DVD in the weeks ahead. Prepare yourselves! :-)
>
>*TimDaniels*
>

"Ben Myers" wrote:
> FWIW, nVidia's web site has Linux Display Driver -
> x86 Version: 169.09, dated January 21. nVidia tends
> to do omnibus drivers (unlike ATI), for which one
> size fits all chips.

Thanks. I'll probably use that one.

> ...the Linux crowd still thinks that real men execute command lines
> to do real work

That happens to be exactly why I want to load Linux - to do
some Shell scripting. I don't even *want* the GUI.

> Some of the cutsie Linux program names are annoying, just like
> they were back when Unix was a Bell Labs research invention.

I think a lot of that can be blamed on the Berkeley grad students
who did a lot of the Berkeley UNIX development work.

> Now you, too, can set up a Linux server on your M1330... Ben Myers

LAMP [Linux/AJAX/MySQL/PHP] would be nice.

*TimDaniels*

> FWIW, nVidia's web site has Linux Display Driver - x86 Version: 169.09, dated
> January 21. nVidia tends to do omnibus drivers (unlike ATI), for which one
> size fits all chips.

I don't have an Nvidia card now, but I was under the impression they'd
been forced to abandon their one-driver-fits-all policy to conform
with Vista DRM policies ?

Timothy Daniels wrote:
> "Ben Myers" wrote:
>> FWIW, nVidia's web site has Linux Display Driver -
>> x86 Version: 169.09, dated January 21. nVidia tends
>> to do omnibus drivers (unlike ATI), for which one
>> size fits all chips.
>
> Thanks. I'll probably use that one.
>
>> ...the Linux crowd still thinks that real men execute command lines
>> to do real work
>
> That happens to be exactly why I want to load Linux - to do
> some Shell scripting. I don't even *want* the GUI.
>
>> Some of the cutsie Linux program names are annoying, just like
>> they were back when Unix was a Bell Labs research invention.
>
> I think a lot of that can be blamed on the Berkeley grad students
> who did a lot of the Berkeley UNIX development work.

I would guess that the Bell Labs (hey, anyone remember them?) work
preceded the Berkeley grad students. but wouldn't bet money on it.

Tony Harding wrote:
>
> Timothy Daniels wrote:
> > "Ben Myers" wrote:
> >> FWIW, nVidia's web site has Linux Display Driver -
> >> x86 Version: 169.09, dated January 21. nVidia tends
> >> to do omnibus drivers (unlike ATI), for which one
> >> size fits all chips.
> >
> > Thanks. I'll probably use that one.
> >
> >> ...the Linux crowd still thinks that real men execute command lines
> >> to do real work
> >
> > That happens to be exactly why I want to load Linux - to do
> > some Shell scripting. I don't even *want* the GUI.
> >
> >> Some of the cutsie Linux program names are annoying, just like
> >> they were back when Unix was a Bell Labs research invention.
> >
> > I think a lot of that can be blamed on the Berkeley grad students
> > who did a lot of the Berkeley UNIX development work.
>
> I would guess that the Bell Labs (hey, anyone remember them?) work
> preceded the Berkeley grad students. but wouldn't bet money on it.

Bell Labs didn't do any cutsie names.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.

Ron Hardin wrote:
> Tony Harding wrote:
>> Timothy Daniels wrote:
>>> "Ben Myers" wrote:
>>>> FWIW, nVidia's web site has Linux Display Driver -
>>>> x86 Version: 169.09, dated January 21. nVidia tends
>>>> to do omnibus drivers (unlike ATI), for which one
>>>> size fits all chips.
>>> Thanks. I'll probably use that one.
>>>
>>>> ...the Linux crowd still thinks that real men execute command lines
>>>> to do real work
>>> That happens to be exactly why I want to load Linux - to do
>>> some Shell scripting. I don't even *want* the GUI.
>>>
>>>> Some of the cutsie Linux program names are annoying, just like
>>>> they were back when Unix was a Bell Labs research invention.
>>> I think a lot of that can be blamed on the Berkeley grad students
>>> who did a lot of the Berkeley UNIX development work.
>> I would guess that the Bell Labs (hey, anyone remember them?) work
>> preceded the Berkeley grad students. but wouldn't bet money on it.
>
> Bell Labs didn't do any cutsie names.

Not meaning to be argumentative, but how do you know?

Tony Harding wrote:
>
> Ron Hardin wrote:
> > Tony Harding wrote:
> >> Timothy Daniels wrote:
> >>> "Ben Myers" wrote:
> >>>> FWIW, nVidia's web site has Linux Display Driver -
> >>>> x86 Version: 169.09, dated January 21. nVidia tends
> >>>> to do omnibus drivers (unlike ATI), for which one
> >>>> size fits all chips.
> >>> Thanks. I'll probably use that one.
> >>>
> >>>> ...the Linux crowd still thinks that real men execute command lines
> >>>> to do real work
> >>> That happens to be exactly why I want to load Linux - to do
> >>> some Shell scripting. I don't even *want* the GUI.
> >>>
> >>>> Some of the cutsie Linux program names are annoying, just like
> >>>> they were back when Unix was a Bell Labs research invention.
> >>> I think a lot of that can be blamed on the Berkeley grad students
> >>> who did a lot of the Berkeley UNIX development work.
> >> I would guess that the Bell Labs (hey, anyone remember them?) work
> >> preceded the Berkeley grad students. but wouldn't bet money on it.
> >
> > Bell Labs didn't do any cutsie names.
>
> Not meaning to be argumentative, but how do you know?

I worked there.
--


On the internet, nobody knows you're a jerk.