Introduction
Although about four months earlier than I intended, I got a new computer because my parents wanted another computer in the house. When selecting the computer, I was open to other options (Apple, Lenovo/IBM, Toshiba, and HP), but it turns out that Dell offered the best specs for the money. As a matter of fact, I had to give up my dream of owning an Apple because a similarly-customized computer would have cost an additional $1,000 (even after educational discount). After spending a day backing up information and restoring my little brothers’ computers, I got to spend some quality time with my computer. Obviously, the first thing I did was to completely wipe the drive and install my Windows XP Professional and Ubuntu Linux 6.10 (Edgy Eft) combination. While the Dell Inspiron e1505 looks deceptively similar to the Dell Inspiron 6000 (we’ll call it “the i6k” from now on), there were certainly many changes under the hood. In addition to discussing the differences in build, I will also discuss a few hurdles Linux users may encounter.

Specifications

• Intel Core 2 Duo T5600 (1.83 GHz)
• 2 GB DDR2 RAM @ 667 MHz
• 80 GB HDD @ 5400 RPM
• Intel PRO/Wireless 3945 abg
• nVidia GeForce Go 7300 w/ 256 MB DDR
• WSXGA+ (1650×1080) display with TrueLife
• 9-cell battery

Total cost (including taxes and shipping): $1,500.34

Overall observations

In the three days I have used this computer, the e1505 was an improvement with respect to quality over the i6k. For starters, the speakers sounded better. Even with the loudest music, the threshold at which the speakers clip and emit a metallic sound was significantly higher. Although the TrueLife display option was advertised to improve viewing of movies and photos, I highly recommend opting for it because the improved contrast ratio makes reading text easier, especially for those who also want a higher-resolution screen. Finally, the i6k was known for being cool on one side but quite hot on another. The left leg now gets some heated love from the computer. Unfortunately, the consistency in heat dissipation did not reduce the temperature on the right side, but that may be because of the newer processor.

Working with Linux

After installing off the Live CD, I proceeded to boot into Ubuntu to install more programs. As it was starting up, it would stop working halfway. I pressed Ctrl+Alt+F1 to turn off the splash image and then Ctrl+Alt+F8 to go to the console with diagnostic messages. I initially blamed it on fsck (file system check), and reinstalled with several different partition configurations. However, what I did not remember was that Ubuntu does not use NetworkManager and still relies on a relatively primitive method of establishing communications. Indeed, the /etc/network/interfaces file looked like this:

auto lo
iface lo inet loopback

auto eth0
iface eth0 inet dhcp

auto eth1
iface eth1 inet dhcp

auto eth2
iface eth2 inet dhcp

auto ath0
iface ath0 inet dhcp

auto wlan0
iface wlan0 inet dhcp

I proceeded to install network-manager-gnome and its dependencies and edited /etc/network/interfaces such that everything but the first two lines were commented out (you can comment out a line in a configuration file by adding a ‘#’). This solved my problems.

If I had to name the most unpleasant experience during my three years of running Linux, it would have to be running an ATi graphics card. Although I learned how to cope and perform the procedures necessary to install the driver and compile the driver, it was not reliable enough for XGL and did not even support AIGLX. By acquiring the e1505, I was able to see first-hand that nVidia’s drivers are leaps and bounds ahead of ATi. Not only was I able to use AIGLX, but I was able to change my screen configuration on-the-fly without restarting X.

Conclusion
Through the process of initiating the e1505 into my family’s fleet of computers, I have learned that Ubuntu hangups at startup were not caused by fsck. Rather, the networking script was trying to obtain IP addresses for all the interfaces (including a few non-existent ones). A relatively trivial change in /etc/network/interfaces and the installation of network-manager-gnome and its dependencies solved this. Additionally, nVidia continues to gain favor in the Linux community with their user-friendly graphics drivers that far surpasses ATi’s offerings. Although I wiped off the MediaDirect partition, I will work on restoring it during my next round of reinstalling Windows.