Re: Toshiba laptops & Debian
On Wed, 21 May 2003, Pisut Tempatarachoke wrote:
> I am very very new to Linux, and hoping to buy a laptop that is most
> compatible with Debian. Could anyone please provide me with comments
> on Debian GNU/Linux and Toshiba laptops (or more specifically Tecra
> S1 1.4 GHz) compatability, and perhaps suggest which laptop I might
> consider apart from Toshiba.
I use and recommend IBM. Aside from the WinModem[1][2] and the embedded
security chip[3] everything just works.
Also, at least in .au, IBM are the *only* laptop people who have given
good service. Every fault I have ever had they gave me no grief and
shipped out a replacement part the next day to my site.
Other companies are a PITA to deal with. Oh, and don't by SHARP, because
they don't even admit to knowing of the existence of computers in their
support department.[4]
> Once I buy a laptop, I am planning to partition its hard drive so I
> could use both Windows XP and Debian. Are there any special
> specifications or configerations of the laptop that I should look for
> when I shop around?
Everyone ships a "recovery" system with their laptop, not an original
OS. If you have OS media, or access to Partition Magic, life is pretty
simple -- "install" the recovery stuff, then resize the partition and
install Linux.
If you don't have either of those, you may have some trouble getting the
XP partition resized to something sane.
A good start is the fact that the recovered partition will be FAT32
until you boot XP the first time, so 'parted' or some other FAT resizing
tool may work for you prior to the first boot.
Daniel
Footnotes:
[1] I believe that OSS drivers exist for the hardware but have never
been motivated enough to find out.
[2] Every one else has them too, so it's like you can avoid them.
[3] They don't have documentation on this available for anyone, AFAIK,
and so no Linux support for, er, whatever the heck this thing can do.
[4] I want a day of my life back after having to deal with them.
--
Increasing numbers of private-sector companies are discovering the
efficiency of hiring bright undergraduates or recent graduates and
paying them next to nothing.
-- Washingtonian magazine
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