On Thu, 2006-30-11 at 11:56 +0000, DDowney wrote: > > I have a Toshiba Satellite A30-203 and am checking if the hardware and > everything in it will work OK under Ubuntu 6.10 before I install it. > > So I did a quick search on the net and came across Puppylinux, > http://puppylinux.org/wikka/LaptopsWorking, which has my laptop listed. > Im assuming then that linux will work well on this laptop, yes?
Short of a definitive answer from the vendor, a support organization, or a user, the only way to know for sure is to try it yourself. The nice thing is, you can do this without installing. I'd suggest booting from the Ubuntu CD, then trying the various tests listed here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTesting. This should give you a good idea if it works. My guess is that it will work somewhere from pretty well to perfectly: Ubuntu 6.10 supports a wide variety of hardware and works quite well. That said, I believe a degree of motivation is necessary (you have to want to try Linux) because there are still many things that don't work quite as well as under Windows. (FWIW, IMHO that's because of any or all of a) buggy BIOSes, b) buggy drivers, c) proprietary drivers, d) vendors who cooperate with MS but not the Linux community, and e) more special-case code in MS OSes to handle a, b, and c than we can possibly imagine... ...there is at indirect evidence for this, it isn't sour grapes...). Truth in advertising, caveat emptor. IMHO, it's better you know the truth and join our community as an informed participant than be told that all is well, then drink the kool aid, only to find it tainted.... As a final note, some of the laptop tests may require you to suspend, hibernate, or reboot your machine, in which case you'll need persistence. This page provides instructions: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDPersistence Personally, I'd try the loopback method and use a local file on your existing hardrive for persistence; refer to section 4 of the previous link, i.e., https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCDPersistence#head-a2c8e58416042a8e80073c10520d7a2d66285daf Once you've kicked the tires, consider adding an entry to your machine on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LaptopTestingTeam/Toshiba, and perhaps filing bug reports on Launchpad: https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+filebug Best wishes and best of luck, pww ps And welcome to Ubuntu! pps I wasn't sure if you were on the list, so I Cc'd you. Apologies if you get this twice....
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