Re: Linux on a Dell

["Martin Rowe" <dbg400.net@xxxxxxxxx>]

2008/5/13 Jeff Crosby <jlcrosby@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
> All,
>
>  I'm a Linux neophyte.  I decided to bring in to work an old Dell desktop
>  with Win XP on it and reload with Linux (Ubuntu) to mess around with in
>  an attempt to at least learn something about Linux.
>
>  Anybody know a reason why Linux wouldn't work on an older Dell?  I see
>  Dell is now selling some systems with Ubuntu on them.  I haven't started
>  yet but I thought Dell did something weird with the boot sector.

Hi Jeff

I have a couple of Dell Inspiron laptops; one an old 2650 which dual
boots XP & Ubuntu and more recently a 6400 that came preloaded with
Ubuntu. Both had recovery/system utility partitions but that hasn't
caused any issues loading Linux. So far I've not had a problem putting
Ubuntu onto any system I've tried - latest was installing on my Eee
PC. The Ubuntu installer offers to shrink your Windows partition to
make space for itself, and leaves other partitions alone - unless you
ask it to do otherwise.

Regards, Martin