My Univeristy just Ordered 50 Dell XPS M1330 with Ubuntu Pre-Installed

[bigbrovar]

Awesome!..Which version did they come pre installed with? I didnt see it in your post?

They came preinstalled with ubuntu 8.04 LTS which is just right because not only is hardy the best version of ubuntu for the laptop (everything just works with hardy) its also the best options as far as enterprise is concerned since stability is considered over new features.

[bigbrovar]

Speaking of, when is Dell going to get off 8.04? Jaunty is just so much better.

yeah it comes with 8.04.. dell has released an image for jaunty iso . so we would soon be seeing laptops that comes pre-installed with jaunty very soon .. but we would be sticking to LTS for stability

[bigbrovar]

you can customise one then aptoncd to backup the packages, and then open synaptic and then click (under "file") save markings as. and then save the file. that file is a list of all installed programs, so it will install all the same stuff.

yeah i try to use this to clone the software of our present laptop on the new laptops

[bigbrovar]

are they coming with nvidia cards? if so be prepared to have some of them returned/repaired because of nvidia cpu failures.
I have one, with nvidia no problems so far, it's a great laptop!!

thankfully the laptops came with intel gma 965 which runs like liquid on hardy and has no heat issues

[Rambar]

Im my university they have been installing Ubuntu (WinXP+Ubuntu) on all computers lately. When I enter the computer room I hardly ever see anyone on windows now

[argie]

Are these with Intel graphics or with Nvidia graphics?

[Icehuck]

Does systemimager support pxe booting? I'm poking around their website but I can't seem to confirm it. Ideally, I would like to be able to boot 50 machines to pxe and then send down the image. I can't tell if it needs a boot disk or not.

[bigbrovar]

Does systemimager support pxe booting? I'm poking around their website but I can't seem to confirm it. Ideally, I would like to be able to boot 50 machines to pxe and then send down the image. I can't tell if it needs a boot disk or not.

It sure does .. systemimager is just what you need. it can be a witch to configure but once setup runs solid. all you will need is one system (golden client) which will be customised to your taste, then sent to a server (image server) which will could be your tftp server. now all you have to do from the 50 machines is select pxe boot and and it will boot the system your customized (golden client) to each of the 50 machine. and because systemimager uses rsync you can also apply patches and make incremental updates to the systems.. it takes from learning but its a great tool

[bigbrovar]

Are these with Intel graphics or with Nvidia graphics?

Intel Graphics

[argie]

Intel Graphics

That's great. I was going to warn you about the nvidia graphics, but it looks like your university made the right choice.