Linux on Laptops

My first laptop install of linux

I used a Gateway solo 9500se, and the Suse 7.2 personal edition dist. as my first install. My latest install on the 9500se is RH 9.0. This system is a 900mhz P3,
comes with a 10 gig hdd, and 128 megs of ram, I upgraded the ram to 384 megs and installed redhat 9.0
I Have WinXP on a 6 gig drive, but Suse does everything I currently need. I have the laptop connected to my wireless network via linksys pcmcia and samba.
Again, I am a newbie to Linux, but do enjoy it so far!!!

It is really easy to install samba in RH 9 and easy to use. I was able to install the printer on my windows 98 system via samba and share drives on my windows 2000 system.

Upgrades of Linux on the Laptop

the suse distribution went flawlessly and without a hitch. the only thing that i didnt bother to load since i had a 56k pcmcia modem, was the linmodem driver for the lucent modem that is integrated in the laptop.
The Suse dist. picked up the ESS allegro sound, the redhat 7.0 distribution did not see and the sndconfig tool did not support the allegra. The RH7.2 distro does see the ESS allegra.
Upgrading to 8.0 PRO is simple and allows you to keep all previous settings and also update programs as well
The latest distro that I installed was Redhat 9.0. No problems with the sound, and in fact sees the linksys pcmcia card fine. Also works well with 1st generation WEP. I do not know if the next gen. WEP will work

should also let you know, the 9500se is no longer in production, but you can still get them refurbished off of gateway's web site, out of the business laptops section.Or, off of ebay

SPECS OF OF THE 9500SE

screen:15.7" SXGA TFT Active Matrix

video card: ATI rage mobility

sound card: ESS allegra

Also, the 9500SE is intended as a desktop replacement and this is what Gateway designed it as.

email

jvradar@excite.com