My guess is that 80% of us Microshaft users would love to do that.
That reminds me, will Linux present special problems on a laptop?
Should get my new Thinkpad next week.
: )
You betchyou!
Only problems could be internal wireless or internal "winmodem", strange video. CD/DVD burner should be no problem.
If you are buying from a brick and mortar source, burn the most recent Knoppix and take it in to try on target machine. I use SuSE on desktop and older Gateway. Don't have the url, but found "linux on a laptop" on the net.
If you didn't hear, those have been renamed Chinkpads...
if you're running a pcmcia nic you'll need to change the service order on pcmcia to start before network. This little annoyance I found in Fedora which is the only one I ever ran on a laptop..
I'm running Mepis Linux on a laptop right now, an ancient, decrepit, 433 Athalon with 196 MB ram. Everything works perfectly without any tinkering. I can surf the net, listen to music (like I'm doing right now), rip CD's, edit photos with GIMP, work on my website, word process, run my school's grading program through Wine, and even watch VCD movies with Xine.
I too had to adjust the volume at the start, but Mepis makes it foolproof by automatically opening the mixer on the first boot.
As a rule, the older the hardware, the more likely it is to work. One thing that will present a problem is dialup...if you're connecting with a modem, as I am, finding a PCMCIA modem can be a hair tearing experience. My Compaq Presario just happens to have a built in Lucent Winmodem. Most of these are automatically recognized and installed with the better Linux versions, and Mepis works with this one flawlessly.
But, anything that involves a network card and DHCP is usually a sure thing. Mine didn't have a network adapter, so I bought a $7 USB ethernet adapter, which Mepis recognizes and sets up a network connection through when I need it.
This thing was crappy with Windows 98, and XP would have been marginal on it, I fear. But, with Mepis, it runs just fine.