Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop
One aspect that Choice listed as a positive for Toshiba was the matt surround of the display. Several had reflective/glossy surrounds, which, after time, became irritating. William Bennett. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
On Sat, Oct 16, 2010 at 12:49:51PM +1100, elliott-brennan wrote: Matthew Hannigan m...@zip.com.au Fri, 15 Oct 2010 17:56:36 +1100 Fun fact: it has a tiny embedded linux on it just for playing dvds so you don't have to boot into Windows to play dvds. Hi Matthew, My HP has exactly the same thing. The laptop even has buttons exclusively for this. Starts in about 6 seconds. Brilliant idea. I don't know why more laptops don't have it. Nice, what model is that? -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
Hi Matthew, It's a HP DV14AP - it's not in front of me at the moment but I'm pretty sure that's the correct model etc. I bought it a few years ago, but I'd be surprised if the newer HPs didn't have the same function and keys. My kids used to use it to watch DVDs until we got a TV from through Freecycle. Regards, Patrick -- www.techfriend.com.au Home computer software training and hardware assistance www.mercuryvideos.com.au Stylishly edited DVDs of your photos and videos On 18/10/10 10:48, Matthew Hannigan wrote: Hi Matthew, My HP has exactly the same thing. The laptop even has buttons exclusively for this. Starts in about 6 seconds. Brilliant idea. I don't know why more laptops don't have it. Nice, what model is that? -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
Here's a CNET discussion which identifies the Linux (sidux - debian sid variant) and a source download link! http://forums.cnet.com/7723-7587_102-236544.html source code: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/genericSoftwareDownloadIndex?lc=encc=ussoftwareitem=ob-29445-1 It's not clear whether this is the same as Samsung's or Dell's equivalent, but I guess it is (or was) Samsung used to make Dell or HP laptops under contract. Apparently later laptops started using Windows based software for this non-boot dvd feature. On Mon, Oct 18, 2010 at 12:06:22PM +1100, elliott-brennan wrote: Hi Matthew, It's a HP DV14AP - it's not in front of me at the moment but I'm pretty sure that's the correct model etc. I bought it a few years ago, but I'd be surprised if the newer HPs didn't have the same function and keys. My kids used to use it to watch DVDs until we got a TV from through Freecycle. Regards, Patrick -- www.techfriend.com.au Home computer software training and hardware assistance www.mercuryvideos.com.au Stylishly edited DVDs of your photos and videos On 18/10/10 10:48, Matthew Hannigan wrote: Hi Matthew, My HP has exactly the same thing. The laptop even has buttons exclusively for this. Starts in about 6 seconds. Brilliant idea. I don't know why more laptops don't have it. Nice, what model is that? -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
Here's my feeble contribution; an item on hackernews, (since it's recent) Ask HN: Best Developer Linux Laptop? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1786930 Laptops generally, you might consider Samsung as well as the usual IBM/Lenovo, Dell, HP. I'm quite happy with my oldish R50 even though I don't usually run Linux on it. Fun fact: it has a tiny embedded linux on it just for playing dvds so you don't have to boot into Windows to play dvds. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
Matthew Hannigan m...@zip.com.au Fri, 15 Oct 2010 17:56:36 +1100 Fun fact: it has a tiny embedded linux on it just for playing dvds so you don't have to boot into Windows to play dvds. Hi Matthew, My HP has exactly the same thing. The laptop even has buttons exclusively for this. Starts in about 6 seconds. Brilliant idea. I don't know why more laptops don't have it. Regards, Patrick -- www.techfriend.com.au Home computer software training and hardware assistance www.mercuryvideos.com.au Stylishly edited DVDs of your photos and videos -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 2:44 PM, Luke Yelavich them...@themuso.com wrote: On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 02:41:39PM EST, Luke Yelavich wrote: Coming from a point of view of audio stack maintainer in a distro, I'd say stay away from Toshiba. There have been many issues surrounding hda audio and Linux in the past few years that myself and colleagues have tried to help sort out. I also believe the kernel maintainers for Ubuntu also recommend users stay away from Toshiba. I can't give any more information than that, but I personally trust the kernel maintenance team of Ubuntu when they suggest that people look at other manufacturers. I should add, that such audio issues were hard to diagnose, due to some ACPI oddities. I could dig for the bug refs if people are really interested. Luke -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html OK, so now that we've learn't what isn't safe. What is? -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
Tony \H.G\ Candito blindra...@gmail.com writes: On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 2:44 PM, Luke Yelavich them...@themuso.com wrote: On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 02:41:39PM EST, Luke Yelavich wrote: Coming from a point of view of audio stack maintainer in a distro, I'd say stay away from Toshiba. There have been many issues surrounding hda audio and Linux in the past few years that myself and colleagues have tried to help sort out. I also believe the kernel maintainers for Ubuntu also recommend users stay away from Toshiba. I can't give any more information than that, but I personally trust the kernel maintenance team of Ubuntu when they suggest that people look at other manufacturers. I should add, that such audio issues were hard to diagnose, due to some ACPI oddities. I could dig for the bug refs if people are really interested. OK, so now that we've learn't what isn't safe. What is? ThinkPad, mostly. Their very bottom end stuff is really IdeaPad inside, which is not the same quality as the ThinkPad hardware. See http://www.thinkwiki.org/ for details on what does or doesn't suck. Apple, after six months. Not because of OS-X, mind you: because there are about two dozen types of mac hardware *total*, compared to however many thousands of combinations of non-mac laptop hardware, you can be pretty confident that it will all be fairly rapidly supported, and solid once it is. Daniel -- ✣ Daniel Pittman✉ dan...@rimspace.net☎ +61 401 155 707 ♽ made with 100 percent post-consumer electrons -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 06:05:10PM EST, Daniel Pittman wrote: ThinkPad, mostly. Their very bottom end stuff is really IdeaPad inside, which is not the same quality as the ThinkPad hardware. See http://www.thinkwiki.org/ for details on what does or doesn't suck. Apple, after six months. Not because of OS-X, mind you: because there are about two dozen types of mac hardware *total*, compared to however many thousands of combinations of non-mac laptop hardware, you can be pretty confident that it will all be fairly rapidly supported, and solid once it is. I'll second all the above, In Ubuntu's case, generally community members will have made wiki pages discussing apple hardware support, so you can get a good idea of just how well recent apple hardware works, and what hurdles you may have to go through to get things working. Luke -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
Tony H.G Candito wrote: OK, so now that we've learn't what isn't safe. What is? Until my current laptop, but usual approach was to buy whatever Dell laptop and Ubuntu developer and Canonical employee (usually Rob Collins) was using. My experience with Dell was good, but i was usually buying something near the top of the line. The main reason I switched from Dell to HP was that I wasn't able to get a Dell without paying for MS Window. The HP I bought through Everything Linux came from the factory with FreeDOS installed. The HP has been excellent. Erik -- -- Erik de Castro Lopo http://www.mega-nerd.com/ -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
On Thu, 2010-10-14 at 17:42 +1100, Tony H.G Candito wrote: OK, so now that we've learn't what isn't safe. What is? I've had ASUS laptops the last few goes. They've been surprisingly tolerable. The one I've got now is a UL20A. I'm rather pleased with it. Low voltage chip and Intel graphics. Yeay. http://www.liliputing.com/2009/11/asus-ul20a-review.html http://www.asus.com.au/product.aspx?P_ID=pS8jNzTab4WZZGjY The bigger learning was discovering that some bright sparks have set up mailing lists for laptop families running (in this case) Canonical's Ubuntu Linux. Mine is: https://launchpad.net/~asus-ul30 There appear to be similar teams for other laptop families, so in aggregate, these might be a good source of information as to current laptop support across the spectrum. AfC Barcelona -- Andrew Frederick Cowie Operational Dynamics is an operations and engineering consultancy focusing on IT strategy, organizational architecture, systems review, and effective procedures for change management: enabling successful deployment of mission critical information technology in enterprises, worldwide. http://www.operationaldynamics.com/ Sydney New York Toronto London signature.asc Description: This is a digitally signed message part -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
[SLUG] On buying a laptop.
So, I wish to buy a laptop. Choice suggests the Toshiba Satellite LP500. I recall some time ago a discussion on whether the AMD processors were better at Linux than those of Intel. As I also recall, majority opinion was that there was 0 in it. Is this still the case? Has anyone had experience (+ or -} with the Toshiba that's worth airing? Thanks, William Bennett. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
wbenn...@turing.une.edu.au writes: So, I wish to buy a laptop. Choice suggests the Toshiba Satellite LP500. I recall some time ago a discussion on whether the AMD processors were better at Linux than those of Intel. As I also recall, majority opinion was that there was 0 in it. Is this still the case? They are pretty much indifferent, other than the basic performance stuff that any benchmark highlighting CPU performance will show you.[1] Has anyone had experience (+ or -} with the Toshiba that's worth airing? Their warranty support was a PITA when I had to deal with them. If that matters to you, another vendor might be a better choice ... but the only vendors I have dealt with who didn't suck were IBM (ThinkPad, and Lenovo have been much more ... mixed), and Apple. Other folks I know say Dell service was good, though my experience wasn't. Daniel Footnotes: [1] That is: don't just compare the speed, compare the performance. -- ✣ Daniel Pittman✉ dan...@rimspace.net☎ +61 401 155 707 ♽ made with 100 percent post-consumer electrons -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
Are you sure it's not a L500? What's the exact part number. Anyway Toshiba has a good name in laptops but they are horrible to return if there is a problem. It can take ages. Also watch out for the bad screen pixels clauses in the return policies (of any brand) Thanks, Ben Donohue donoh...@icafe.com.au On 14/10/2010 2:25 PM, wbenn...@turing.une.edu.au wrote: So, I wish to buy a laptop. Choice suggests the Toshiba Satellite LP500. I recall some time ago a discussion on whether the AMD processors were better at Linux than those of Intel. As I also recall, majority opinion was that there was 0 in it. Is this still the case? Has anyone had experience (+ or -} with the Toshiba that's worth airing? Thanks, William Bennett. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
I've got a Toshiba P300 dual booting to Ubuntu 10.04. I've steadily upgraded from 8.04 on it and for the most part it was fine. Did have a glitch during 8.10 and 9.04 where it lost all network adaptors after the upgrade but a few extra options on the kernel boot line and they returned. I've also had to return it for a dead hard drive and found the process was quite painless - dropped it off at their service centre (Silverwater from memory but could be wrong) and picked it up a few days later which was an acceptable enough time for me. I've owned a few Toshiba's over the years and generally get 4 - 5 years use out of them. Of course this is one persons experiences and I'm sure there's an equal number of people who can say the same for other brands. HTH, Paul On 14/10/2010 3:02 PM, Ben Donohue wrote: Are you sure it's not a L500? What's the exact part number. Anyway Toshiba has a good name in laptops but they are horrible to return if there is a problem. It can take ages. Also watch out for the bad screen pixels clauses in the return policies (of any brand) Thanks, Ben Donohue donoh...@icafe.com.au On 14/10/2010 2:25 PM, wbenn...@turing.une.edu.au wrote: So, I wish to buy a laptop. Choice suggests the Toshiba Satellite LP500. I recall some time ago a discussion on whether the AMD processors were better at Linux than those of Intel. As I also recall, majority opinion was that there was 0 in it. Is this still the case? Has anyone had experience (+ or -} with the Toshiba that's worth airing? Thanks, William Bennett. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
I've made a mistake here. Choice recommended a Toshiba Satellite L550 (I know, but it was sent from work--I've had a chance to look at the article at home.) Checked also with the Toshiba Home page--the L550 has been discontinued, although from the number on offer when you do some comparative shopping, you'd never guess. And I'd still like to buy one. I remember some members of SLUG trying to extract from the vendor the price of the Microsoft installation that came with the computer and that they had requested be removed, or not installed. There was much indignation at this. Is it still the case that Microsoft installation is mandatory? I'll mention also something that Choice was none too pleased about: some computers give you the choice of a 32-bit or a 64-bit version of the operating system. Fair enough, but the choice becomes permanent, because the installation you *didn't* choose is destroyed. This probably wouldn't affect Linux users. William Bennett. -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 02:41:39PM EST, Luke Yelavich wrote: Coming from a point of view of audio stack maintainer in a distro, I'd say stay away from Toshiba. There have been many issues surrounding hda audio and Linux in the past few years that myself and colleagues have tried to help sort out. I also believe the kernel maintainers for Ubuntu also recommend users stay away from Toshiba. I can't give any more information than that, but I personally trust the kernel maintenance team of Ubuntu when they suggest that people look at other manufacturers. I should add, that such audio issues were hard to diagnose, due to some ACPI oddities. I could dig for the bug refs if people are really interested. Luke -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
Re: [SLUG] On buying a laptop.
On Thu, Oct 14, 2010 at 02:25:36PM EST, wbenn...@turing.une.edu.au wrote: So, I wish to buy a laptop. Choice suggests the Toshiba Satellite LP500. I recall some time ago a discussion on whether the AMD processors were better at Linux than those of Intel. As I also recall, majority opinion was that there was 0 in it. Is this still the case? Has anyone had experience (+ or -} with the Toshiba that's worth airing? Coming from a point of view of audio stack maintainer in a distro, I'd say stay away from Toshiba. There have been many issues surrounding hda audio and Linux in the past few years that myself and colleagues have tried to help sort out. I also believe the kernel maintainers for Ubuntu also recommend users stay away from Toshiba. I can't give any more information than that, but I personally trust the kernel maintenance team of Ubuntu when they suggest that people look at other manufacturers. Luke -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
