Well it looks like Dell is finally going to make good on my service contract. Apparently their part backorder problems are resolved, and I just heard from Jeff the service technician who should be here in about 45 minutes.
Now I can get back to working at 1400x1050 and in Linux. The backup laptop I was using was only capable of 800x600 under Linux, and 1024x768 under wintendo
Now if only I could run M$ Project under Codeweavers Crossover Office.