Ubuntu 8.04.2 on a HP DV9000 laptop

[Oren]

The DV9000 comes with a computer management software package from Hewlett Packard, and Windows Vista Home Premium. Ten CDs worth of software to load.
Very slow. The computer appeared to be labouring over even the most mundane tasks. My wife uses the laptop for banking, e-mail, DVD movies, and Skype.

I did a little reading, and then chose Ubuntu Desktop 8.04.2 to replace the factory O/S. The whole thing fits on one CD.

The laptop works. Fast, smooth, and stable. No anti-virus software. No problems.

[folderol]

Says it all really. Hows the missus taking to the penguin?

[Oren]

Says it all really. Hows the missus taking to the penguin?

Having never been pre-sold on Mac or Microsoft, but having used both and experienced their shortcomings, my wife has deemed the penguin a welcome house guest. She is working on the laptop right now, very happy.

[folderol]

Wait till she discovers how much she can personalise it

Coming to a desktop near you soon...

Fluffy dice

[Oren]

 

[kara]

Good plan Oren 
Looks like Ubuntu is pretty up to date with laptop hardware drivers

k

[Oren]

Looks like Ubuntu is pretty up to date with laptop hardware drivers

Further developments:

Skype was purchased by EBay some time ago, and now the state of their service is such that the software will run on Microsoft 64 bit operating systems, but not Linux 64 bit. Which means we have to downgrade to 32 bit version 8.04 or earlier to accomodate Skype. My wife stays in touch with family and friends in this way.

So, the compromise:
Replace Ubuntu version 8.04.2 with the latest 64bit version 8.10. Then run Vista as secondary O/S.

Some of the toys on the HP laptop (webcam, for example) were a bit of a challenge with Linux, so we will use Vista to run Skype, the webcam, and the DVD movies. Linux will do all the serious computing, and all files will be stored in the Linux partition.
Meanwhile, my wife will take some time to familiarize herself with the more involved aspects of Ubuntu, and eventually get all the laptop features running under Linux. By then, hopefully, Skype will be able to run on a 64bit system, and we can be rid of Vista.

[folderol]

I don't use Skype at all but there  are two possible options here.

Install ia32-libs (not needed this for anything myself yet) and whatever wrapper script is needed for Skype to run in 32bit emulation mode.

Install wine (64bit) and run the Windows version of Skype in that.

In both cases you should be able to get a lot of help from the ubuntu forums.

As a point of interest, wine is getting seriously clever at providing the interface environment of all versions of Windows from 95 upwards

[kara]

You do know that there is a version of Skype for linux, don't you ?
http://www.skype.com/download/skype/linux/

k

[Oren]

Install wine (64bit) and run the Windows version of Skype in that.
As a point of interest, wine is getting seriously clever at providing the interface environment of all versions of Windows from 95 upwards

I like the sound of this....

[Oren]

You do know that there is a version of Skype for linux, don't you ?
http://www.skype.com/download/skype/linux/

Yes, thanks....
But, Skype for Linux will only run on a 32-bit operating system, and only on Ubuntu version 8.04 and older.

My preference in a Linux operating system is the most recent 64-bit version, which in Ubuntu is version 8.10. Very fast and stable.
I'm looking into "Ekiga" - http://ekiga.org/