[ale] Trying to make the switch to Linux

[Dow Hurst]

John,
I love that statement "If anything I thought the install came with too 
much stuff." :-)

That is what I like to hear!  I am always amazed how my first thought 
with SuSE is that if I just go looking the software I want is probably 
already there.

Thanks for the tip on the ACPI, I'll try it soon.  The Dell Latitudes 
give the processor type and speed in the CMOS so just press F2 on boot 
before Grub or LILO or NT starts.  Mine is a Celeron 333MHz so is 
considered a i686 chip.  My laptop is a CPt.
Dow


John Marasco wrote:

> Michael Hartman wrote:
>
>> All,
>> I've got an older Dell Latitude laptop that has NT 4.0 on it.  I'm 
>> sick of the instability and memory errors.  I went out and bought 
>> SuSE Linux Personal 8.2 yesterday at Best Buy.  Before installing it 
>> I've got a couple of basic questions (This is primarily my wife's 
>> computer now and she's pissed her email keeps getting messed up):
>> ---How do I ensure that my laptop is Pentium, thus eligible for the 
>> software?  I tried checking the properties tab and it just says x86 
>> Family ....., AT/ATCompatible ....  At first I thought this meant it 
>> was a 486...but upon checking my current laptop which is pentium III, 
>> I discovered that they said nearly the same thing.
>> ---The disks have openoffice.org on it too...I will be able to use my 
>> older excel files still, right?
>> ---Will I be able to hook my laptop into my d-link wireless network 
>> at home still (di-713P with dwl-650 cards?)
>> ---Will I be able to still print to my HP OfficeJet 720?
>>  
>> If this isn't the right place to post this, let me know.  Linux.com 
>> said I should reag out to my local groups pre-installing.
>>  
>> Thanks for your help!
>> Michael
>
>
> If it's not a Pentium, you wouldn't have the disk space or memory to 
> run NT 4.0 happily.  I don't think you need to worry about this but...
>
> Select the Start Button and then the Run menu choice and type winmsd 
> at the prompt and press enter.  I'm not running NT 4.0 but you should 
> be able to find the processor type in there.  You may find a line that 
> looks like this:
>
> Processor                                          x86 Family 15 Model 
> 2 Stepping 7 GenuineIntel ~2657 Mhz
>
> If the speed (~2657 Mhz) is over 75 then it's a Pentium.
>
> I recently did an FTP install of SuSE 8.2 on a Latitude CSx H without 
> any issues.  I was very impressed in how easy a Linux install has 
> become since I did my first (RH) 5 years ago or so.  The first install 
> was a cable modem router and I never had a lick of trouble with it in 
> all that time but I never actually *used* Linux until now so I'm sort 
> of new to Linux and sort of not.
>
> The wireless configuration was a separate issue and it took a little 
> research.  I'll tell you what I did and try to help as I can but I 
> have a LinkSys wireless card with a Netgear router.  Linksys has Linux 
> drivers at their web site.  You might look to see if D-Link does too 
> before getting started.  I got my wireless to work without using the 
> Linksys drivers but I wish I had checked before doing the install.
>
> Open Office is very cool and I'm surprised at how much functionality 
> is there.  I don't recall that it did a good job with my old WP 
> files.  Then again I didn't realize it read Word files so you might 
> want to ignore this comment.
>
> I don't know about the printer but I can access my network shares 
> (Win2000, Win98 and SuSE 8.1 Samba) without any problems.
>
> I had to use the APM power management on my machine and that required 
> a kernel switch in my BootLoader (Grub I think) to disable ACPI before 
> it would work.  Once I turned off ACPI the APM power management tools 
> came right up and I've been using them without any trouble.
>
> If anything I thought the install came with too much stuff.  It took 
> me a while to figure out what was what but eventually you will find 
> that there are tools to do everything that Windows does and some.
>
> _______________________________________________
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> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>

-- 
__________________________________________________________
Dow Hurst                  Office: 770-499-3428           
Systems Support Specialist    Fax: 770-423-6744           
1000 Chastain Rd. Bldg. 12                                
Chemistry Department SC428  Email:   dhurst at kennesaw.edu  
Kennesaw State University         Dow.Hurst at mindspring.com
Kennesaw, GA 30144                                        
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