[plug] [Semi-OT] Laptops- Toshiba A100

[Tim Bowden]

On Sun, 2007-02-11 at 11:07 +0900, Max wrote:
> I will be in the market for a low to mid priced laptop in the near 
> future,
> so this thread interests me also.
> 
> The first question for me will be: 
>   Will linux install and run on it making it possible to use the laptops 
> hardware features - in my case, can i run Mandriva or Kubuntu ? .......

I've always had good success with toshiba (hardware reliability wise and
linux wise), to the point where I no longer look seriously at any other
brand.  One thing that has never worked out of the box is internal
modems.  I've never tried to fix them as I don't need them, so it may or
may not be an easy fix.  I suspect not.  On my latest model Satellite
A100 I'm a bit pissed off though; The sd card reader won't work with
linux.  Why the hell they use a proprietary closed interface to this I
have no idea.  It's not like having some spiffy 'secret' sd card reader
technology is going to give them some incredible cost or value
advantage.  You can either read sd cards or you can't.  It's enough to
make me look at other options next time around as this would be very
nice to have.  Battery life is not so great; About 2 hrs, but that suits
me fine as I'm mostly on mains.  It does limit what I can do while
travelling, but I'd rather go for raw power and speed as this is my main
day to day work machine.

One thing I always do is boot into a live cd before I buy.  I've yet to
be turned down on that request if I explain why I want to do it, and
that it doesn't touch the hdd.  On the Satellite A100 inbuilt wireless
worked fine, graphics worked great, but the fingerprint reader was as
dead as a dodo.  I don't like the idea of my fingerprint being stored
where I may not have control over it, so I didn't mind that.  Everything
looked good. Maybe I should also have tested the sd card reader while I
was at it but I didn't think of it.  I also left the live cd for the
staff to play with.  They appreciated it, especially when I told them it
was legit, license wise.  They'd heard of linux of course, but had never
seen it or had the chance to play with it.  Now they could.

As far as vendors go, I can't go past http://www.cybershop.net.au/ for
sales or support.  The last three laptops I've purchased have all come
from there.

Regards,
Tim Bowden