Seeing as I've got no replies having tried to tag onto another thread...
What Linux distro do people recommend to install as a dual boot with W7 on my new laptop? I am technically savvy and even get paid to hack Linux stuff at work, but have never had it at home. Can cope with a more difficult install, but crucially I need driver support for the stuff on the laptop.
Also, does anybody have experience of built in 3G broadband cards? Much to my surprise my new laptop comes with one (also has GPS and apparently retails at ~£100, which is a nice bonus I didn't expect) - can I just take any mobile broadband SIM which comes with a dongle and plug it in there, or is it more complex than that?
Mint: From freedom comes elegance...
As for driver support. Sorry.
what chip is the 3G card?
Personally, I would use Ubuntu LiveCD to have a poke around to see what drivers your laptop works with. Generally, Ubuntu will have better support for more 'modern' hardware compared to other distros, thanks to it's popularity.
I'm a Debian user myself.
Mint is based on Ubuntu so should have same driver support, plus you can use both Mint and Ubuntu forums for help setting it up.
I've used the XFCE version of Mint for a while as a sole operating system at home and have always found a solution to hardware issues with a little research.
Puppy Linux on my laptop because it's so damn fast but I don't know how good the 3g support is on that one.
I've got Fedora on my Laptop, Ubuntu netbook edition on my netbook, both dual boots. The odd bit of hardware isn't supported (e.g. winmodems) but everything else including works fine. The wireless on my netbook didn't work until I'd installed all the updates- so if it's a recent model you might want to have a wired ethernet connection on standby.
Haven't used any 3G cards, only 3G USB modems, both the ones I've tried worked fine.
What distro do you use at work? If it's not something niche I'd go along with that since you'll be more familiar with it if there's any problems.
Built in 3g (Ericsson MBM) works on F13 on my Thinkpad T500. It intermittently refuses to work after unsuspend, but toggling the rfkill button invariably fixes that.
Ubuntu at home, fedora and centos at work. Prefer Ubuntu for package support/just working. Very little to choose between them though really.
Ubuntu has to be a good start point.
Thanks all - am using CentOS in work, but given the application is rather different to my home use (for a start it's moistly minimal installs without a desktop - and then I'm removing packages from that!) it doesn't seem that relevant, and I'm certainly not at all tied to it.
Having now looked at Ubuntu, the next question is whether there's any advantage in using netbook edition rather than desktop edition? I don't have either a desktop or a netbook - it's a thin and light laptop, so more powerful than a netbook, but with a similar form factor - does the netbook version give me power saving and mobility stuff which will be useful, or is it just cut down to work on lower power computers?
The Netbook Remix has a different UI, designed for much smaller screens IIRC.
Stick with the normal Ubuntu.