Introduction
First of all, I want to thank everyone who provided feedback on my guide, Install Vista on Dell Mini 9 (USB). It has been a pleasure to give back to the community. As a thanks, I have added title pictures to the Vista guide as well as this one. (I know; I’m cheap.) That also means that I’ll be writing the same sort of guide for Windows 7! I finally convinced my girlfriend to let me at her Mini 9. I have been playing with the Windows 7 builds since build 7000 leaked (that’s all that’s been on my new gaming machine, actually) and I am very pleased with the new OS. As everyone knows, Windows 7 is what Vista was supposed to be, but Microsoft released way too early. But this is another topic; installing Windows 7 on the Dell Mini 9 is very similar to the Vista installation, but I have decided to rewrite an entirely new guide just to eliminate any confusion over small differences. I will do my best to make the guide as similar to the Vista instructions, and I’ll even be pulling sections word for word. As always, feedback is always appreciated.
Since starting this brief I have installed Ubuntu’s new version, 8.04 Hardy Heron (if this is any indication of my thoughts on this Linux operating system. ) This brief will document my experience with installing and using the popular Linux distribution, Ubuntu 7.10 Gutsy Gibbon, as a primary operating system. My last experience with Linux was several years ago with Ubuntu’s Dapper Drake release. While impressed with the capabilities of such an insignificant operating system (at least to me), I was dissapointed with the hardware support. I could never actually get my graphics and network devices working properly with the operating system. I realize this is a limitation of Linux in general as most hardware vendors only write drivers for major operating systems, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth. Thus, I was rather skeptical of Gutsy. While intruiged by the Open Source community and love their software for web-server work, I didn’t expect to be able to transition to Linux as a desktop replacement. I have just gotten too used to the interoptability (albiet error-filled) of the Windows environment. It may not be the best, but it’s the most popular, so you are almost guaranteed to “make it work”. So, without very high hopes, I started my journey.
