Early this year, Linux pundits kept dubbing 2009 “the year of Linux”. For the first time, Linux distributions were bundled with consumer laptops and sold in the big stores. Nonetheless, it didn’t work quite as well as we would have wanted it to. Basically, here’s why.

Netbooks are dirt cheap devices marketed as simple net’n'mail laptops. When I try to imagine who will buy these, I can only see the kind of people who run old Windows XP computers with Internet Explorer 6 and an expired version of AVG. Now you are trying to sell these computer-illiterate people something different that won’t play well with their iPod Touch and you expect them to like it?

What happens is that these people cannot chat or play their music the exact same way they did on their previous machine. Even if the bundled software did everything better than Windows (and it often does), they don’t look and work the same way. These people don’t want to learn how the new thing works, they just want it to work like Windows. Don’t expect them to give a crap about the bulletproof stability and the security of Linux if it doesn’t look like XP. After a while, they will get bored with having to figure out how to do what they easily did on Windows and they will return the damn thing.

There is no way to easily market something radically different to people that have used Windows for years. No matter how intuitive Gnome is, people will still ask how they can install applications or change the wallpaper. Until manufacturers start to fully embrace and support Linux and offer it with full computers (and not mere Atom-powered netbooks), then maybe Linux will get the chance it deserves.

So you’ve got your brand new Dell Studio 15. It runs a fresh OS, does everything to perfection, but some strange things seem to happen with the hardware. You are not alone! Small problems are common with the Dell Studio 15. These are some of them.

Touchpad lags/unresponsiveness

What happens: The touchpad is acting strangely at random intervals and for a few seconds. For a few seconds, the mouse is absolutely uncontrollable and then everything returns to normal.

Hardware or software: Hardware. The problem also happens on non-Windows operating systems.

Eject button stuck

What happens: The eject button lights up and ejects any CD or DVD. After a few seconds or minutes, the button with light off. This problem occurs randomly.

Hardware or software: Hardware. The problem also happens on non-Windows operating systems.

Thankfully, I finally I received my laptop before madness took over. Good news: it’s insanely awesome!

This means quite a few things. First of all, let’s talk about Gecko’s future! With my new computer I’ll be able to resume working on it in my very scarcely available free time if I can resist booting on the much more awesome, faster, more stable Ubuntu Jaunty. I know many would like to see this project see the light, but I’m rarely home and have a lot to do.

I’ll also have some time to work on my blog, possibly switching back to french again. Then there’s my resume I must work on and my photo collection to sort and then I gotta prepare a photo CD for a few friends and fulfill my duty for the SliTaz project.

Boy, I sure am busy!

Oh yeah, and the backlit keyboard is awesome-o-matic!

J’ai enfin reçu ma demande d’admission en technique de l’informatique au CEGEP et les demandes du programme sont assez impressionnantes alors je dois remplacer mon ordi pour la rentrée. Mon ordinateur est donc à vendre aux intéressés.

Cet ordi, c’est lui qui a allumé ma passion pour les ordis HP. Il est très solide, très beau et très performant et le support technique HP est excellent. Je comptais le garder en fin de compte mais le CEGEP demande au moins 3GB de RAM alors qu’il en a deux. Sinon c’est un excellent ordinateur que j’ai toujours adoré. Il est beaucoup plus fiable que mon Acer. Il est encore très à jour et offre les performances d’un ordi encore sur les tablettes.

HP Pavillion dv2422ca

Système: Windows Vista Home Premium français avec Windows Media Center. Supporte très bien Ubuntu

Mémoire vive (RAM): 2GB

Disque dur: 160GB

Processeur: AMD Turion 64 X2 à double coeur (dual core), 1.8 GHz

Autres trucs cool:

• Batterie haute capacité: 4 heures d’autonomie (mon coup de coeur )
• Webcam et micro intégrés
• Lecteur de cartes mémoires
• Mini télécommande qui se cache dans le port ExpressCard
• Graveur CD/DVD avec LightScribe

Infos complètes (du site de HP)

Je demande 500$ pour (payé 1000$, l’équivalent se vent beaucoup plus cher sur LesPACs). L’ordi est en parfait état cosmetique, aussi, alors c’est vraiment à voir! 450-577-1663 ou nicolasbouliane at gmail point com pour des infos.

For those who decided Vista doesn’t cut it and tried to run Linux on their HP laptops, you might have discovered everything works except WLAN. Well folks, it’s possible to make it work and the process can be done by newcomers like me. The workaround applies for HP laptops (DV, TX and ZV series) but also for some Dell, Compaq and Acer laptops.

I can confirm this work on my HP Pavillion dv2422ca with a Broadcom 4321AG card.

The guide can be found here:
Installing BCM9431MCG WLAN mini-PCI on 7.10 and 8.04 – Broadcom wifi on a HP dv9000 (Ubuntu forums)