Xandros on IBM T42 laptop- Initial report is it actually "just works"

[Oren Beck]

2 parts- overview and hardware notes- then Xandros 3.0 and T42 details
of the software side. Do note that so far there have been near ZERO
issues of the T42 not being seamlessly compatible with Xandros 3.0

I was VERY pleased with last night's initial "test install" of Xandros
3.0 Though it's an older distro version with ethical "Non-Free"
liability for some it just plain works for me. I made no attempt to
dual boot both for lack of drive space on the drive and the lack of
NTFS stability reputed to exist even after updating.
The initial cautious default became a 12 GB drive that cost me $5. Do
also note that the T42 has a "one screw" primary drive tray. Which
made swapping drives trivial The drive trays are under $20 delivered
from online sources as of today- 3-17-2008 So the out of pocket to do
this "properly" would be still under $30 had I bought the tray. My fix
was taping an old hotel room keycard over the drive's pcb as
insurance. Yes- ESD potential is always a concern with such
expedients. Though some brands of Door Cards are actually ESD safe by
design! So far I am just paying back my debt to Linux by reporting
hardware issues often snipped by others. The Linux and more
directly-Xandrox 3.0 details are next.

The initial procedure I use for these tests is Damn Small Linux as a
CFdisk tool for formatting. That being actually quicker than my
previous arguments with Xandros 3.0 over NTFS not being supported. So
beginning from a formatted as FAT32 drive the install was almost
literally "fill in the blanks" for keyboard-time zone- name etc.
Everything just worked! Ethernet only needed to be plugged in and
selected with a click. The Wifi also just worked. As did pulling
several music files across the network and they began playing. The
only trivial "did not work yet" was the on screen volume display. The
T42 usually displays bars for the audio level in response to pressing
the hardware control buttons. the buttons worked- just no display .
That's a later project. Summary is- so far Xandros seems a viable XP
replacement.


-- 
Oren Beck

816.729.3645