On Tue, 15 Jan 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Let's see ... is a person with a $7000.00 laptop trying to use a particular OS to >save $200.00 ? Derrr ... besides that show me a Toshiba that doesn't already come >with Windoze installed.
OS is the most important thing, while the manufacturer of the laptop is not. If Toshiba sold their Laptops with NetBSD preinstalled, I'd buy that instead of a preinstalled Windows 98. > My point was twofold ... > a) You wouldn't get this problem with a Toshiba and Windows and if you did you can >be sure it would be fixed pretty quickly. Whether you like it or not (and you >obviously don't) this highlights one of the weaknesses of Linux. What is a weakness of Linux? I think the keyboard repeat problem is NOT a problem of Linux, as it is there with XFree86/BSD also. > b) Overcoming problems like this is even more difficult because Toshiba won't >release specs for their machines and they don't give a rats enough to provide any >feedback when people have problems. ie. you can't even email them and expect an >answer. Yet they are the biggest laptop producer which highlights another of the >weaknesses of Linux. Toshiba is one of the few manufacturers that do have a web site with drivers and stuff for non-MS operating systems. I have not looked into it recently but there have been for example XF86Config files etc. And I know that they try Linux on their laptops. It is just not _officially_ supported. > In terms of the cost once you add in the time to solve problems like this in Linux >then the TCO of Linux rises considerably. And this sort of illustrates the bubble >that some people are living in when they don't realise what these costs are. What? I have had like dozen of times more problems with the preinstalled Windozes than with self-installed Linux or NetBSD. > Finally for the record. I will try harder to convince the company I work for to >examine IBM laptops more seriously before they purchase any more laptops for people >using Linux. BUT ... from what I've seen on the net even they aren't free from errors >when deploying Linux. Yes, you should at least examine if IBM is still using a certain disk system ID internally, which, for example, prevented installing any BSD operating system on certain models. I don't know if this has been fixed somehow, and I don't know if it matters if you use Linux, but you should think about it. BR, Teemu _______________________________________________ Xpert mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/xpert
