RE: [wlug] Suitable laptop for Linux?
Have A10, ditto. Would rather have my old Dell back. However, in defence of A10, SuSE 9.1 did pick up every piece of hardware, including modem. However, no serial ports or PS/2 is a problem for me and what I do during the day. Speakers are horrid. DVD is only 2x writer (45mins for 4.5GB disc) 16x CDR. It also came bundled with WinXP Pro. I did get this one for free though, but I sometimes wonder. Like Denise, I had to buy a mouse, USB to Serial converter, external speakers etc.... If it covers your bases then buy it. It does not work for me though. -----Original Message----- From: Denise Bates [mailto:dbates(a)iconz.co.nz] Sent: Wed 18/08/2004 18:14 To: Waikato Linux Users Group Cc: Subject: Re: [wlug] Suitable laptop for Linux? On Wed, 18 Aug 2004 14:50, Gavin Denby wrote: > I saw in a flyer from warehouse stationery that they have a Toshiba A10 > with Intel integrated graphics and celeron 2.2 > > Price is about 1500 so in budget. but that includes MS tax. > > Intel tend to be good at linux support nowadays > > worth a look if you dont have one yet I bought one a couple of months ago and have installed Mandrake 10.0 on it. Most things were detected during installation and worked well. Sound, Video, and CD-writer needed no fiddling to speak of. The speakers are pathetic, and the touch-pad is quite useless! As useful as an on-board mouse can be on occasions, I replaced it with an external USB wheelmouse immediately (it has no PS2 port). The internal 56k modem didn't work (I didn't really expect it to). I selected this model because it had a PCMCIA slot, so I could fit a proper modem, rather than wrestle with a winmodem. As much as I would have preferred to buy a Windoze-free laptop, the only other readily-available candidate (from DSE) didn't have PCMCIA, and at the time, the prices were comparable. I removed the internal modem (an easy job) just in case it caused problems. The Toshiba A10 does have a couple of shortcomings. It has no serial or parallel ports, and it doesn't have a floppy drive either. I managed to get a parallel printer to work with a USB-to-serial/parallel adapter from DSE, but it was something of a battle. Last week, I bought a Epson CX3100 multifunction thingee, and it works perfectly with minimal fiddling: Printer, Scanner, and Copier! Another minor irritation is that the PCMCIA slot seems to have almost no "grip" to the card which is inserted. Even a small tug, applied to disconnect the modem cable, pulls out the card itself. No floppy, ports, useable mouse-substitute, or working modem! When you buy all the "extras" that should be standard it isn't much of a bargain. -- regards, ********************************************* Dr Denise J. Bates, PhD School of Geography & Environmental Science University of Auckland Private Bag 92019, Auckland New Zealand E-mail: d.bates(a)auckland.ac.nz Telephone 09-3737599 ext 86592 Home: 09-2336433 email: dbates(a)iconz.co.nz ********************************************* _______________________________________________ wlug mailing list | wlug(a)list.waikato.ac.nz Unsubscribe: http://list.waikato.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/wlug
Makes my aspire seem really nice, when My Ibook went I got the Aspire 1350 from DSE on special. I feel so much better, I was thinking I had paid too much. This little laptop has Great sound, and I mean great. I Tried external speakers, and they we worse that the internals, touchpad works ... OK I hate touchpads, so its a usb mouse, but the touchpad works well my only issue was that the video card is not right, its got a savage pro chipset thing KNsomething, so its just using vesa driver, but it works. I also use a usb keyboard, so 3 of the 4 ports are busy, but I have a 4 port hub and hotplug detects everything thru that too. As for the USB-Serial I have used number of USB-Serial cables the best from IT products and the DSE single serial cable (ftdi chipset) were both detected on slackware 9.1 without even lifting a finger I just made a symbolic link from ttyS2 to my ttyusb.. thingy so I could remember where it was. .. (saved me running dmesg to try an remember so often.) howver the acpi has been more of an issue, but FeatherLinux manages it really well, so I think it could be solved if I ever feel I realy need all the bells and whistles to work. And a nice solid pcmcia slot, but its a single only. so no pcmcia type 3 cards in it. My only complaint is the heat from the rear left hand side, But tonight for some reason Its appreciated. its got an athlon 2600+ mobile in it. Gund Wehsling wrote:
Have A10, ditto.
Would rather have my old Dell back.
If it covers your bases then buy it. It does not work for me though.
The speakers are pathetic, and the touch-pad is quite useless! As useful as an on-board mouse can be on occasions, I replaced it with an external USB wheelmouse immediately (it has no PS2 port).
-- A Life ???? Sounds great, where can I download one of those ??
participants (2)
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Gavin Denby -
Gund Wehsling