<p>Hey guys, I was wondering if someone could shine light on this. As I understand it, every student will be given an identical laptop at the beginning. Now these laptop run windows :( But I also heard that they come with a linux partition. Now i was wondering what "linux" that is, and if anyone would mind me wiping it and replacing it with Gentoo Linux, or maybe FreeBSD. The person i talked to was a mac person, and wasn't able to clarify this.</p>
<p>Any info would be appreciated.</p>
<p>Woah, we get laptops? I thought I knew everything about Olin haha...I'm assuming we have to pay. Do you know what kind it is?</p>
<p>we do have to pay, its like 1250 twice, so about 2500 all in all. sounds like it is gonna be nice...</p>
<p>i just checked something, and noticed that it seems to be rathat. sure hope i can put gentoo on there, yum is not that great...</p>
<p>We do have to pay for our laptops (we'd probably be too spoiled otherwise...) and it is $2500 over 4 semesters. The class of 2011 received Dell Latitude D620s. They have an Intel 2.16Ghz Core2 Duo processor, 2 GB of RAM, a Nvidia Quadro video card (workstation), and about 65 GB of harddrive space. Ours came with Windows XP and pretty much all of the software we use in classes, e.g. Matlab, Solidworks, Office.
In addition, there also is a Fedora linux partition. I really haven't used it much, so I can't comment. I know there is a small group of Oliners that are into Linux; I've seen people using Ubuntu instead of the Fedora that comes with, so I doubt there's any problems with getting your favorite linux onto the laptop.</p>
<p>Good luck with your applications, I hope to see some of you at CW.</p>
<p>Stan</p>
<p>You do pay for the laptop, but lots of good repair and replacement costs are covered. As a parent, I appreciated that!</p>
<p>I immediately removed the Linux partition and installed Gentoo Linux. I'm assuming that if you're already into Gentoo that you'll know enough to get by better than most people running Fedora.</p>
<p>Just remember that you're responsible for keeping up with class requirements on your own. That said, it'd be easy enough to set up some alternate partition or boot CD with what the school requires, if need be.</p>
<p>I took a Java programming class and was the only student doing all the work in Gentoo Linux while everyone else did it in Windows, mostly to see if I could do it. It worked fine.</p>
<p>Also, you're going to need to keep your Windows partition since most of the very expensive engineering software whose student versions come installed on the laptop are Windows-only.</p>
<p>Grant Hutchins '06</p>
<p>Thanks a lot for all the replys guys.</p>
<p>Yes, I am already into gentoo, so I should be fine on that. What are the requirements? The typical ones I can see are ones like "word processing" and network access. And on that note, I heard there was wireless trouble with the laptops of some year(s). How is that under linux nowadays?</p>
<p>And since the machines sound good enough, I think I might try to have em run under a virtual machine, so I can stay in gentoo fulltime.</p>
<p>Nils</p>
<p>I'm assuming even if we already have a laptop, we will still have to get the standard school issued one?</p>
<p>That is how I understand it. And that is why iIam waiting on getting a new one ...</p>
<p>All students are required to get the same laptop, but plenty of people have multiple computers on campus, and there is a fairly large linux community.</p>
<p>A few years ago (I'm not quite sure when), there were issues with ad-hoc networks interfering with the official college wireless. I'm not sure why anyone felt the need for their own wireless, because Olin's works just fine. Now, IT enforces a policy of no ad-hoc networks, but I'm not aware of any other issues.</p>
<p>The most significant factor is about the laptops is all of the software we receive (Solidworks, Matlab, Maple, etc...)</p>
<p>Are there any students at Olin who also have Macs?</p>
<p>I know of at least a handful, but I think there are fewer of them in general. Several of the professors definitely use Macs...</p>
<p>I'm on a Mac right now. A chunk of us have them, though I use my Dell more often for homework (to run programs like Solidworks, etc.) I also occasionally use my Linux partition- mostly when I'm coding. </p>
<p>Jessi '10</p>
<p>haha if i do get into olin first thing ill do is wipe out that linux partition, repartition the whole thing into three and install backtrack 2 as well as an OSX86 patched MAC leopard on the other! CANT WAIT haha</p>
<p>Very bad idea ^^</p>
<p>I shall shrink the windows partition and add a slice for freebsd, and have a nice gentoo as well...</p>
<p>Why is that a bad idea? :(</p>
<p>because everything with "patched" in it tends to not work, but that is just my experience...</p>
<p>maybe you willl have luck and get something to work.</p>
<p>But i think i will stick with gentoo</p>
<p>feel free to use something else</p>
<p>Ubuntu all the way. About putting OS X on a Dell:
I know some people who do this (they call it Hackintosh), and everything seems to work fine for them until Apple puts out a 10.x.y point release. Then they have to wait for somebody to hack together a patched version, as Apple's default kernel can't be used for some reason.</p>
<p>YEAH exactly! haha... I already have tiger running on my PC at home!... HAve to try to get leopard next... haha</p>
<p>My name is Brad Powers, class of 2010 at Olin, and I just want people to know that it is definitely possible to run a Mac, in fact it's pretty easy. If anyone has any other questions I can answer for them, drop me an email:
<a href="mailto:bradley.powers@students.olin.edu">bradley.powers@students.olin.edu</a></p>
<p>Laters</p>