As anybody who have installed Ubuntu Linux knows, the installation process itself was incredibly easy – easier than installing Windows. I installed Ubuntu about 2 weeks ago and will here post my experiences in configuring Ubuntu Feisty on my laptop – a Dell D620 with a Nvidia Quadro 110M graphics chip.

After the installation had completed and the computer had rebooted the system was up and running. But unfortunately the screen resolution (1440×1050) was not detected correctly. To fix this issue i installed the Nvidia restricted drivers by typing the following in a terminal:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade
sudo apt-get install nvidia-glx-new

When I had rebooted, the screen resolution was correct, and the drivers were installed. Everything else in the system worked like a charm, so I went straight to installing applications and configuring the panel. The following is my own list of essential applications for Ubuntu:

Just a note: In Ubuntu Edgy Eft, there were some sensitivity problems with the touchpad on the D620 – this issue has been resolved in Feisty. The complete process, from insertion of the Ubuntu CD to a fully-configured system with all required applications installed took only about 3 hours. This is – in my opinion – very impressive.