I'm going to try to address as much as I can. I don't have the
attention span tonight to remember all of what your said.
1. PuTTY is for people who don't have access to a native Unix-Like
terminal. It may compile for Linux and OS X, but it is not needed.
Use whatever terminal is native in Mandriva. You can telnet or ssh to
"remote login" into the same place that the PuTTY users are going.
However, you have the benefit of being able to test locally with no
network connection at all. (But, your professor probably has a way of
monitoring your progress on the remote server.)
2. Power management is a disaster in Linux. It's the reason I use a
Mac as a workstation even though I maintain 50+ servers as my
profession. Sorry, sleep/hibernate will suck until you die. (Actually
it is getting better, but mostly only with new hardware that is sold
with Linux preinstalled.)
3. Arduino IDE should install on any Linux, does it for you? If it
does, you should find a Makefile in the project. It will allow you to
"make" and "make upload" to compile/verify and upload respectively. I
describe it briefly here:
arduino.cc/.../000398.html
4. Your gcc should "just work". If you have a Linux install where it
doesn't, focus on that. Don't bland that issue out with this other
stuff. Get on IRC (freenode) and get it worked out.
5. For my Lenovo I got a lot of my info from
http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki and
http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/lenovo.html But I was lucky, mine had
Intel everything and was well supported.
Re: #1 - Are you familiar/comfortable with the Linux command line?
Does your Mandriva install use Gnome or KDE? Do you know what terminal
app it uses?
I hope that helps. In the future I would suggest prioritizing your
needs and make focused posts. I understand how frustrating this can be
though. Stick with it. When you get over the hump, you will start
dealing with Linux servers. That is where is sings. As a workstation
(especial laptop) it is still a bit lacking. As a Linux server guru
you really can write your own ticket. I just spent 3 months trying to
hire a _Senior_ Linux Admin in Atlanta during this "tough economy" and
not a single Linux expert applied. They were all out of work MSFT
admins who claimed to be "quick learners". I ended up hiring back a
guy who left me 2 years ago for a more money than we were paying.
Yeah, now we hired him back for even more.