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The Dell XPS M2010 is classified as a notebook on Dell website, but I find it more of a mobile workstation. With it's huge 20" screen, 8.6kg bare and over 10kg with all extras (leather case, power supply) it can hardly be regarded as a laptop. Part of the price is the "cool factor", it can hardly be advertised as good value for money, but...

It's one of those rare things that people either love or hate. I've chosen the XPS M2010 for the very specific tasks and environment and it's performing absolutely perfect in those. With Core 2 Duo CPU, up to 4GB RAM, 1680x1050 20" high gloss, double axis swing LCD, two hard drives and the possibility to use software RAID the data safety and speed is that of the high-end desktop.

It also works rather well with Linux, I will try to list my path of setting it up with what works, what is probably going to work and what doesn't.

Please note that XPS M2010 can be configured in many ways, as a Gentoo user I will present the way that in my personal experience provides the best balance of usability, performance and data safety. Your mileage may vary.