Laptop Linux: The Dell Inspiron 8600

I recently bought a Dell Inspiron 8600. Being an avid Linux fan, I just wanted to get Linux up and running on it as soon as possible. Finally, after much effort, my system is in perfect shape, with ALL components working fine (had a lot of good timing to thank for that!). This page is to share all that information. I got a lot of help from several pages about Linux on Dell 8500, which are listed in the references...