R60 Linux

[wanderlust]

I tried linux mandrake some years back. I had the advantage of having talented friends helping me out. Now I'm living abroad with no idea what linux versions are good or work with my r60.

Q1: Are there drivers for everything in my r60?

Q2: Does my R60 care which linux I put?

Q3: Which linux is userfriendly for a beginner... I was running xwindows on my mandrake, and thats the only experience i have...

[Lunar]

I've just installed, in a "test mode", Ubuntu 7.04 (beta, the final release will be out in a couple od days). All hardware other than the modem (which I didn't have the time to play with) worked. I'd agree with those that consider Ubuntu as the most "newbie-friendly" among the distributions.

Lunar

[!Blob!]

You may also want to check the SuSE/openSuSE Linux which I believe was avalible preinstalled on some ThinkPads (somewhere). I'm not sure if it's a rumour only but I've heard it few times. If it's true then you shouldn't have any problems.

I installed openSuSE on Virtual PC just to see how it looks like. It's a big leap in last few years in terms of usability and
convenience. I've got to say that Linux can be used by anyone nowadays (meaning it's not so though). Just stick to the user-friendly distributions like SuSE or Ubuntu.

And if you want to learn Linux go for Debian or Slackware (or Gentoo). I've used those and it's a good (but sometimes hard) way to learn *nixes.

[clickpoint]

I've just installed, in a "test mode", Ubuntu 7.04 (beta, the final release will be out in a couple od days). All hardware other than the modem (which I didn't have the time to play with) worked. I'd agree with those that consider Ubuntu as the most "newbie-friendly" among the distributions.

Lunar

were you able to get the wireless working???? I'm still unable to get my card to work

[brnf]

I personally don't use it, but I often hear that Unbuntu is great for beginners who don't want a too steep learning curve. Also, they just released a new version. If you have some time and really want to learn something about linux, you should have a look at Gentoo. It doesn't come with all the configuration GUI's other distros have and you have to do a lot of things "manually". However, in my opinion they have by far the best package management system and it's easy to keep your system up to date. Initially it may take a bit longer to install it and get used to it, but after some time it gives you a great user experience.

For the drivers etc, have a look at http://tuxmobil.org/recent_linux_laptops.html there are some R60 entries.

[snessiram]

...All hardware other than the modem worked...

Does that include the thinkpad harddrive protection? As that is the only thing that didn't worked right out of the box on my ubuntu 6.

[rann]

Hello to all, my personal favorite up to this point is SLED OR SUSE LINUX ENTERPRISE DESKTOP 10 series it has a nice console and pretty much does everything you would need. There are those exceptions that have to do with Window calls. Hopefully they will be negotiated, I'm not holding my breath.