I have an E1505 and have installed Ubuntu to it. I am actually using ubuntu Dapper (6.06) right now! It was fairly easy for me. Version 5.10 was harder because it didnt recognise the video drivers (I have the intel 950GM), but I changed them to i810. Here are some helpfull links:
http://klepas.org/2006/04/09/ubuntu-on-the-inspiron-6400/ Fixing the resolution (6400 is the buisness version of te E1505)
http://yergler.net/yiki/Ubuntu_on_the_Inspiron_E1505 A full tutorial

If you want the MediaDirect button to work, DO NOT remove anything but the windows partition, or else you will have to reinstall the partition. I heard the last partition is the utils partition or something, which would be okay to delete, but I dont know. One of them is the MD partition.

Also, I dont have a wifi ap near me, or dial up. I use cable with a wired router, so I dont know how easy it is to get wifi to work, but I dont think it is that hard. Also check the ubuntu forums and wiki (ubuntuforums.org and wiki.ubuntu.com). Good luck!

I tried a few distros and researched a ton, and it seems that SuSE was the best for this laptop. SuSE recognized the Intel GM graphics card and installed it out of the box, as well as sound. I have the Intel WiFi and after adding a couple of repositories I was able to check mark the Intel wireless driver and software to support it and automagically install it. I have been running it flawlessly for over a month now. My brother also runs SuSE 10.1 on his Dell 1405 with pretty much everything supported. It automatically installs the dual CPU kernel. It even seems to hibernate. The only thing I haven't tried is the card slot. I haven't booted into windows XP in a couple of weeks, KDE works so much better.