In the past couple of weeks, I've installed Debian and Ubuntu on a laptop. Mind you, I didn't have a laptop lying around that I was willing to risk to Linux. I went out and bought the cheapest laptop I could find.
A programmer in my office had downloaded Ubuntu 7.04, and gave it to me on a DVD. I downloaded the 3-DVD set of Debian 4 image files and burned them to DVDs. I loaded Debian without a glitch. It came up to the Gnome desktop. I loaded KDE desktop and was able to use it from the get-go. In fact, it ran well. Later on, I unloaded a few too many packages and killed Debian (I think I could have fixed it, but why try when I could re-load it in a few minutes?) With Debian killed, I decided to try Ubuntu. It loaded in a few minutes and even saw the wireless network card (and the wireless network) in my house. I never did get the wireless network up and running.
I was working on getting PostgresSQL to compile and install when for some reason I decided to reload Ubuntu. It didn't take long, althought with the author of the article below, I agree that there is too long a period from the time you boot from DVD until you can tell that the system is doing something.
After working on this for a while, I decided to go back to Debian. Almost all the packages I need are already built for Debian distribution (and are probably on those 3 DVDs.)
Keep in mind (a) this was a new laptop, and (b) I didn't do anything fancy to get it working.
I do agree with the author on one thing: in order to get Linux running (any Linux, not just Ubuntu), it's pretty easy to do things that are already built for that distribution. If you have to rebuild the kernel, make system changes, or do other things under the hood, the support resources assume that you have a level of technical saavy. You'll find yourself looking for resources to explain the resources.
All-in-all, though, I think Linux is coming. Windows better watch out.
Ubuntu Linux's Achilles' Heel: It's Tough To Install On Laptops -- InformationWeek
