[geeks] FYI - Dell to start accepting orders for Ubuntu laptop/desktops

[velociraptor]

On 5/25/07, Joshua Boyd <jdboyd at jdboyd.net> wrote:
> On Fri, May 25, 2007 at 12:45:43PM -0700, velociraptor wrote:
> > My Dell Precision 390 came with Nvidia video (dual head DVI using a
> > splitter cable) and I had no issues with it under Kubuntu after I
> > nixxed the OSS drivers and switched to the Nvidia provided ones (which
> > are in the Debian repos).  Of course, this was before I switched to
> > Solaris x86.  The latter has worked just as well after tracking down
> > the Broadcom ethernet and Nvidia drivers.  SATA is probably the only
> > real difference on this box, aside from the video card, from the other
> > Dell desktop offerings.
>
> I have an Nvidia laptop.  At first I used the then latest Nvidia drivers
> on 6.10.  It had all sorts of things that would cause the machine to
> crash when using nvidia drivers, and a lot of the power saving stuff,
> including sleep and hibernate wouldn't work.
>
> In general, my opinion is that unless there is a good reason otherwise,
> it is best to stick with hardware well supported by the OSS drivers.  To
> me that means either newish Intel graphics, or Radeons older than
> X1000.

Since I could not get the dual head working at all with the OSS Nvidia
drivers, I think that's a good enough reason to ditch them.  I want my
workstation to *work* not crash.  Much as I like OSS, in some cases,
it's just not mature enough to do the job.  This is definitely one of
those cases as far as I am concerned.  But, as with all
things--whatever tool fits.

=Nadine=