I've been fighting my laptop for over a month now.  Hard drive was slowly going to hell in a handbag.  I finally bought a new hard drive and tried to load my backup, then my system restore discs to set the computer up like it was when I bought it.  For 3 days nothing worked.  (3 days without arfcom, it was horrible.)  Finally I got hold of a copy of Ubuntu and it installed with no problems.  I've only been using it for about 30 minutes but it seems to be doing alright.  Preliminary reports are good, and my wallet is happy I won't be having to pay $200 for a new copy of windows 7.  

I switched for a full year to Ubuntu until Win 7 came out.

Download this book:

http://www.ubuntupocketguide.com/index_main.html

Try to learn what linux is really doing.  Most distributions are to the point now that you do not need to know any command line stuff.  People believe that when you drag a DVD icon from the desktop to the trash, it somehow magically "ejects" the disk, when in actuality, it is typing EJECT -v on the command line behind the scenes...  (If I fked that up, please dont persecute me linux gurus!)

Don't get caught up in the "I need to blow my system away every 6 mos to have the latest distribution" craze like I do.

I'm another former linux user that went full time win7


it's that awesome.

I waited to buy this laptop until 7 came out and I really liked it.  7 seems to me like Microsoft went back to XP and then did everything they failed to do when they created Vista.  I loved it, but when my hard drive crapped out I couldn't get the system restore discs to work.  I "installed" ubuntu onto a flash drive and it loaded without a hitch.  So far ubuntu isn't up to par with Windows 7, at least until I learn how to use it, but it will do until I can save up $200.  When I do put Windows 7 back on this machine I'll probably keep Ubuntu as a backup operating system.  My roommate has been telling me this will be a "good way to get into computers and programming without Windows telling me I'm a bad person for trying to know what I'm doing."

P.S. Thanks for the link, Mugzilla.

I don't understand. If your computer came with 7 on it, what's stopping you from getting a copy of the disk from somewhere and reinstalling using the license code that's somewhere on the bottom of your computer? Perhaps under the battery?

No, it's just Vista with a new wrapper and some under the hood improvements. Internally it was called Vista R2.



 

Regardless what's under the hood, 7 is a is a major improvement over Vista.

I'll have to look into that.  I just know the discs I have are fubar'd (or my disc reader is fubar'd) and Ubuntu is the only thing I could get to work.  I'll look into what you said, then I can have two operating systems.  And for some reason that appeals to me.

Amen

i run a dual boot here Win 7 with Ubuntu