CentOS or Fedora on Thinkpad R500 (2714-A9G)

[roman-online]

Hello together!

I am new to CentOS and Fedora.

I want to ask, is it advisable to install CentOS on this Notebook (4GB RAM, Intel 4500MHD)? Notebook is for software development (c/c++, java, perl, python, R, eclipse) and usual stuff (email, internet, video, music)

will the following hardware be supported?
- Intel Core Duo T6670 (2,2 GHz): cpufreq?
- Bluetooth
- Fingerprint
- Usage of extern monitor (if laptop lide closed or just plugging of VGA cable)
- Suspend/Hibernate
- wlan: intel 5100agn
- Webcam
- Fn-keys
- HDD tools, monitoring

I have tried Fedora and CentOS Live: cpu-scalling/bluetooth/fingerprint/webcam/extern-monitor/suspend-hiber/wlan/Fn-keys(part) are not worked/supported in centos.

So maybe You can provide me some practical experience about CentOS/Fedora and notebooks with those OS. I read that centos is good for servers... not for desktop/notebooks.

I know that fedora will be the better choice, but i want a stable rpm-based OS without adventures.

Please give me yours opinions!

[CSchwangler]

This notebook should be able to run about any current distribution. For some of your hardware components it may be more difficult to get them working than for others: Fingerprint, Webcam.

In my experience, Bluetooth, cpufreq, suspend/hibernate, hdd tools work out of the box. However, suspend/hibernate often depends on your graphics card. I have two laptops with Intel graphics and it works without any problems. Fn-keys will work out of the box for many laptops, but are easy to configure if they don't work.

Fingerprint and maybe Webcam reader will probably be more difficult. Not that Fedora doesn't provide appropriate software, but special drivers may be required.

Wlan may be a kind of a problem (not so much of Fedora, but for Linux in general) and much depends on the model built into your machine.

Now the CentOS vs. Fedora thing. You need to be aware of the fact that Fedora is kind of a bleeding edge distribution and is more aimed towards advanced users. That means that while the software in Fedora will be more current than in CentOS (thats probably the reason why suspend/hibernate worked in Fedora but not in CentOS), this also means that sometimes things can break. If you absolutely need stability, then go with CentOS.

---------- Post added at 07:16 PM CST ---------- Previous post was at 07:07 PM CST ----------

You might be interested in reading this post:

http://insidesocal.com/click/2010/03/you-know-whats-working-on-my-l.html

It is about a man who tried several current Linux distributions (Ubuntu, CentOS, etc.) and finally installed F12 on his laptop for several reasons.

[smr54]

Wlan won't work.

CentOS' kernel doesn't support the "N" type of cards.
The rest of it should work, but wireless is sort of a deal breaker these days.