The Ubuntu LaptopTestingTeam Wiki is a good resource for test results of Ubuntu on laptops, although neither the Dell Studio 15 and 17 are currently listed.

 

One thing that caught my eye with the Dell Studio 15 & 17:

 

Wi-Fi Options:

Hi there,

 

I am currently evaluating the new Dell studio notebook line preferably the 17. I would really love to have full Ubuntu support because currently its my primary O/S both at work and home.

 

If anyone have succeeded in making Linux/Ubuntu work in this new machine, please post to this thread. If yes I would certainly buy this machine to replace my current laptop.

 

This would be my first Dell notebook, and I have heard from other people here in Greece that they received EXCELLENT support for any hardware/software errors they faced.

 

Regards,

Christos

 

 

I am also interested in buying this laptop and installing ubuntu.

I came across this today and thought it may be useful.

Auto-NDISwrapper

 

This may help to configure the wireless.

....probably I rushed

 

In the 17 line you have another option for the wirelless card the "Dell Wireless 1510 Half Mini Card (802.11n)". I guess at some point in the future when N becomes common place we will have support for it. For the time being if the "1397" is supported its fine, for me at least :)

 

Christos

According to Direct2Dell blog,

 

http://direct2dell.com/one2one/archive/2008/07/18/select-systems-now-available-with-ubuntu-8-04.aspx

 

ubuntu 8.04 support is coming early August for the Studio 15n line. As far as I have seen in the web site all models both the 15 and 17 share the same type of wirelless card "Dell 1397 Wireless-G Card". So if Dell provides support for the 15 then it will work for the 17 too, I guess.

 

Anyways, sooner or later it will work, big thanks to Dell for supporting Linux !

 

Christos

Ubuntu LaptopTestingTeam Wiki is an excelent resoruce. I hope they test the Studios in the next weeks.

I already bought a Studio 17 but I don´t recieve it still. I bought whit wireless 1510 N-card.

I´m want to recieve the laptop and inmediately divide the HDD in 5 partitions of 50 gb each one. And run XP, Vista and Ubuntu. The idea is migrate all my activities tu Ubuntu in the future.

Greats news the suport of ubuntu 8.04 in August. I can wait.

I promise to keep you informed about my advances.

Thans for the posts.

Please yes if you can, keep us informed with the process of installing Ubuntu in this new 17 Studio Line. It will help us with our purchase decisions! :)

 

Thank you :)

Christos

 

Just a refresh,

 

today at the linux-dell mailing list there was a message written by Andrea Venturi about installing debian linux on dell studio 15 machine. You can find the message here:

 

http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-desktops/2008-August/001808.html  (inside there is a link to his webpage describing his experience)

 

Most of the hw configuration worked, some things needed tweaking though. Nevertheless there was a response from a dell linux engineer about the status of some hw components used in Dell Studio 15 in relationship with Ubuntu. You can find the reply here:

 

http://lists.us.dell.com/pipermail/linux-desktops/2008-August/001809.html

 

I think, so far so good, If you carefully choose some hw components in the 17 line (eg the wireless G adapter not the N one), Intel High Definition Audio etc, there would be no problem installing Linux on that machine (at least for Ubuntu there is excellent support out of the box, for other distros it may need some tweaking but you can get them to work at the end).

 

Regards,

Christos

 

I have taken the plunge and installed Ubuntu 7.10 on my Studio 17 with decent results.  Had to get the right driver for the video card, had to reconfigure wireless with NDISwrapper.  Sound isn't working yet and Gutsy dosen't recognize the onboard Broadcom wired eithernet card.  SO, once I get all of these issues worked out I will post all the fixes on this thread.

just got the wired card working using this site:

 

http://soopertux.blogspot.com/2008/01/installing-broadcom-netlink-fast.html

 

Only outstanding issue is sound and seeing what happens after I finish the upgrade to Hardy (8.04).  Will keep you posted.