Installing Linux on a laptop, particularly older laptops, is often a hit-or-miss game of matching the right drivers to the various oddball hardware manufacturers manage to cram into the small form factors. Oftentimes it takes a lot of trial and error with different distros and kernel modules and more than a little Googling.

Fortunately there’s a site that can take a lot of the pain out of this process: Linux on Laptops. This site is a compilation of contributed links where laptop Linux users share their experiences in getting their favorite flavor of Linux running on their hardware. The links are easily searched as they are broken down by manufacturer and model number, and in most cases there are several links for each model. For example, there are 26 entries for my Dell Inspiron 8000, with three in German (hello Babel Fish). I’ll definitely be spending some time on these pages in the coming weeks when I finally blow Win2K off this baby and install Linux, and I may even contribute a link of my own.

The site also takes a lot of the pain out of shopping. Before you bid on that old laptop on eBay or make a purchase at a used computer store like Computer Renaissance, drop by Linux on Laptops and make sure it’s not going to be more of a headache than it’s worth.