[SATLUG] which laptop to buy?

[Joshua Davis, KD5LSX]

I think this was to me, but if it's not, just grumble something about
"stupid kid" and disregard. :) Otherwise...

>
> hm... sounds good.  im ready to give up on the one i have now (i have to
> disable pci altogether or the disk hangs).

Trust me, you'll probably like Toshiba alot better than Con, erm, Compaq.
(No flames please. I have my reasons. :) )

>  i can get the 2400
> since its in
> the same price range.

Be warned: I only have experience with the 1905 (desktop replacement)
series. All information hereafter is for the 1905 series. :)

> does yours have the supersavage?

No. Mine has the ATI Mobility Radeon 6P w/16MB VRAM. Flawless support in
recent versions of Mandrake and Slackware.

> also,
> the 2400 has
> secure digital.  whats that for?

I assume this is talking about Secure Digital memory cards. You know, kind
of like for a MP3 player or digital camera. I have know idea about Linux
support for this.

> and what about the network,

The internal NIC uses the eepro100 or epro100 driver. Full support.

> modem

Unfortunately, the internal modem is a [CENSORED] winmodem. :( Linux won't
even detect it. (Maybe detect, but definitely won't use.)

> and the
> buttons on the front?

Proprietary software, Windows only. They're not terribly useful to begin
with, so I wouldn't worry about it.

>  are you able to suspend to save power?
>

This requires a special patch (from
http://memebeam.org/toys/ToshibaAcpiDriver) or a 2.5.x kernel. I'm still
playing with it, so I don't know too much. I do know you'll need these
"Toshiba Laptop Extras" for the new style (legacy-free) machines. The tools
to use power management come with most Linux distributions.

> also i had the worst time with my friends hp.  the graphics wasnt
> supported
> at all but i loaded it anyways.

I had considered going with HP, but I HATE onboard graphics with shared
memory. I had one PC like this, and I'll never do it again!

>  when i switched back to the console the
> whole thing died!
>

Bummer. Well, I can switch back and forth without any problems. :)

> thanks!
> matt
>

Joshua