Well, I tried Gutsy on this hardware and the sound worked just fine. Alsa does seem to be installed. The post about it should be going up around 11 today. :)

Last time I checked, two weeks ago, the ALSA drivers were only on the ALSA website and had to be compiled to work with Gutsy. But again, I am in no way a specialist nor a computer professional like you guys (only an amateur who has worked with a lot of different OS in the last 20 years).

Same here. I did tons of research played with live CD’s. I knew the potential limitations an pitfalls of the system long before I dove into it.

I guess this is why I never had this “OMG, Linux is the sux” reaction when I couldn’t get something working.

I suppose I’m the cautious type.

Most people start their adventure with linux by installing it on a former Windows box without actually doing any research on hardware compatibility

I first researched my hardware, tried a few live cds, looked thru linux forums to see the kind of problems people have and how hard they were to solve, read a few online books, and thought about it for a couple of months before I actually did it. And then I loved it :)

@Starhawk – very true! Most people start their adventure with linux by installing it on a former Windows box without actually doing any research on hardware compatibility. Then they get pissed off when stuff doesn’t work out of the box for them.

In the meantime they are perfectly ok to hunt down drivers for all their hardware when they reinstall windows. Go figure.

@Alphast – how hard is it to install ALSA? Are the new drivers in the repos? If I have to compile them from source then that might be annoying, but anything short of that I do not consider a bit issue. And hell, if it compiles nicely on Gutsy without major dependency issues then it should not be a show stopping issue either. :)

Well, I would avoid to install Gutsy on this specific hardware, because it will probably not recognize your Intel sound controller. Unless you wish to install the new ALSA drivers which are not included with Gutsy, for some unknown reason…

And hey notice I’m now getting

Posted using Mozilla Firefox Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.11 on Linux Linux

instead of what I was getting. need to fix it now to say ubuntu. BTW I’m currently using Swiftweasel and am very pleased with it. Noticeably faster than my FF was. :)

Unfortunately XP could not figure out how to work with following devices:

1. Broadcom NeXtreme BCM7505M Gigabit Ethernet Controller
2. Intel Pro/Wireless LAN 2100 Mini PCI Adapter
3. Integrated Intel sound controller
4. ATI Radeon R250 Mobile Graphics Card
5. The voiceband win-modem

And people say Linux doesn’t support alot of hardware. I think people just buy computers with Windows installed but most Linux users have to install it themselves. lol

I love it when Linux saves an old PC from ending up in the landfill or junkyard!

I’ve also recently obtained my fiancee’s 5-year old HP PC. Promptly wiped the hdd and installed Ubuntu Gutsy. Now, its acting as my game server with a mysql db. And I don’t even need to connect it to any peripherals. VNC FTW!

:D

This was a great little machine even as a Windows box. My company bought many of these back in the day. I was actually kinda upset when they discontinued it. :P