On Thu, Oct 30, 2008 at 11:32:48AM -0700, Scott Silva wrote:

on 10-30-2008 11:11 AM vandaman2002-rt-/E1597aS9LT10XsdtD+oqA@public.gmane.org spake the following:

...

I have a choice of CentOS 4/5 and Fedora 9 on a laptop. I have not use CentOS 5 on a desktop but have used CentOS 4 and Fedora 9. I found the Fedora Gnome not as appealing as the CentOS 4 clearlooks. Any opinions from someone who has used CentOS 4/5 and Fedora?

I'm not a KDE fan so KDE users need not reply.

Regards, Vandaman.

First thing is to see if your laptop will support CentOS. That might be the determining factor. Maybe try the live cd's

Check the distro hardware support pages. Wireless? Other hardware like graphics chips?

New laptops tend to have new hardware -- F9 or even F10 may be necessary to get rolling with a minimum of effort on new hardware. I tend to work with install media that is about 6 months newer than my hardware based on the assumption that most issues have been resolved. With this in mind enough works well enough that I can fix the remaining bits. I have had to resort to text mode install, USB ethernet hubs, kickstart tricks and more when I stray and get too ambitious.

As Scott wrote... try a live CD that may be the fastest way to discover the issues.