I've got three identical laptops here - Dell D610s, all with the same 
hardware configuration (they're part of a set we used to use for classes 
on the road).

openSUSE 11.2 was released yesterday, and I figured I'd try out 11.2 
(since I'm a forum moderator, I should know something about it <g>), and 
my stepson had asked me about Win7 for his gaming needs (since he is 
starting to look at games that need DX10 and runs XP).

So I thought I'd install Win7 on one of the laptops as well.

First I tried openSUSE 11.2's GNOME liveCD.  I'm a GNOME user, so it's 
the most familiar environment for me.  Dropped the disc in, powered up, 
every piece of hardware properly detected - wireless working, sound 
working, didn't have to fuss with anything.

Then I tried the 11.2 KDE liveCD.  I generally haven't liked KDE, but 
KDE4 is relatively new and I wanted to give it a fair shake.  Nice 
environment - I actually kinda liked it.  I had a problem with getting 
the network manager to pull a default route and DNS server setting from 
my DHCP server, but the hardware was (as I expected) detected properly 
and worked just fine.

Next, I installed Windows 7 Ultimate N on the system.  On the plus side - 
the installation was FAST.  Of the three full product installs, it was 
the fastest, actually.  I think it took about the same amount of time as 
Windows 3.1 did if you took out the diskette swapping.

But it failed to detect my wireless card.  I had to actually plug into 
the wired network.  Then it downloaded updates automatically and 
installed a driver for the wireless card.  OK, it did eventually work; 
but with oS 11.2, it just worked - didn't have to download anything.

It also failed to install audio drivers.  Now the Dell D610 hasn't been 
tested with Win7, so perhaps this is to be expected.  What was unexpected 
was finding out that there are actually NO Win7 audio drivers for this 
laptop - you have to install Windows XP drivers in order to get sound 
working.

So with stock hardware in the Dell laptops, I have to say that the idea 
that Windows 7 "just works" and openSUSE 11.2 doesn't is complete pants.

Before I upgrade my real systems to 11.2, I need to check some software 
compatibility and functionality for my Wacom tablet - since I use a 
customized driver (patched with OLED support, which isn't generally 
available) and the X server driver isn't complete yet for Xorg 1.7, I may 
have to wait for that to be completed.

Jim

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