Baron, I will eventually be posting a webpage detailing exactly what I did and how, so that other potential Linux users with similar hardware can see what's possible. The link will be
http://www.dogscoff.co.uk/linux but I don't have anything up there just yet.
In the end I went for Full Ubuntu 7.04 on the Dell Inspiron 510m (just google for specs). It installed fine, picked up all the hardware, no further tweaking required whatsoever. It even runs the desktop effects nicely.
The machine that's making things interesting is a battered-but-functioning Sony Vaio fx701.
Specs here. It's a good little machine, designed to run WinXP home which it did, well enough, for some five or six years.
Anyway, I installed
Xubuntu on the Sony from the alternate install CD. Full Ubuntu was just too much for it. Xubuntu's install picked up all the hardware without any hassle at all, including the Sitecom WN PCC 01 wireless network card in the PCMCIA slot, so I was online straight away. I've removed abiword and installed openoffice and everything seems to run just fine. Admittedly, all I've used it for so far is browsing, viewing photos, checking email and playing
Wesnoth. However the hardware seems to be entirely up to the job. Oh, I also had a quick play with LinCity, which seemed to be a little bit laggy, but I have a suspicion it runs like that on most computers.
There have been a few niggling things to sort out, some of them my own fault, I'm sure (keyboard mappings, transferring emails, that kind of stuff) which will be documented in full on my website.
I haven't played with Puppy or DSL yet, I'm afraid. They both seem to offer day-to-day use desktop systems though. Take a look at their websites for screenshots and software lists:
http://www.puppylinux.org/user/viewpage.php?page_id=1 (hit 'refresh' if it comes up with "page not found."
http://www.damnsmalllinux.org/
I'm tempted to spend £10 on a USB memory stick and put Puppy on there, just so I can play with it. If I do, I will report back. I don't think I'll be using DSL unless I do one day decide to unmothball my old Toshiba.
Is your machine home-built/custom built or is factory built? What exactly are the specs?
Re: OT - which distro?
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