OT: Upgrading to Newer Laptop

[Dave Stevens]

Quoting Rolf Turner <r.turner at auckland.ac.nz>:

> On 10/06/13 06:58, Robert Holtzman wrote:
>> On Sat, Oct 05, 2013 at 12:05:14PM +1300, Rolf Turner wrote:
>>
>>       .......snip.......
>>
>>> P. S.  Based on my experience, ***don't*** buy a Toshiba!
>> Want to expand on that? My stepdaughter has a satellite that I'm
>> thinking of taking over and installing one of the linux distros.
>>

certainly test it with a live cd or bootable usb first. I bought a  
Samsung and had to wait a year and a half for a reliable driver, very  
frustrating.

Dave

>>
>>
>
> Well, I just had endless frustration in respect of the WiFi  
> interface which was vital to me.
> After a bit of struggle I found an email address that purported to  
> be for Linux support
> for Toshiba machines.  I got all excited and sent email to that  
> address, and after a couple
> of days got a reply saying no, we don't support Linux.  Which I  
> thought was pretty crappy.
>
> Anyhow, apparently Toshiba keep things so secret that it's  
> essentially impossible for the
> free software community to build drivers which will work with  
> Toshiba's WiFi interface.
> I had more endless frustration, but eventually found out that there  
> exist USB WiFi devices
> that will dodge around the problem.  (Some such devices will work  
> with Linux systems and
> some won't.)  I first tried an ASUS device which purported to have  
> Linux support, but turned
> out to be essentially useless.  Then I was lent an Engenius EUB 9801  
> device which *did*
> work.  (This particular item has been discontinued by Engenius, but  
> has been replaced
> by something else.  Can't remember the designation, and have no idea  
> if this "replacement"
> actually works with Linux.)  Then I bought a device from  
> thinkpenguin.com, and they
> guaranteed by email that it would work, and indeed it did.
>
> I had also bought a Logitech cordless mouse along with my Toshiba  
> --- and *that* wouldn't
> work initially (under Linux).  It would work if I booted <expletive  
> deleted> Windoze, but.
> However with my latest re-install of Fedora (17) the Logitech mouse  
> works fine.  Don't know
> if the problem was really down to Toshiba or if it was just down to  
> Logitech, but whatever
> it was, Fedora seems to have solved the problem.
>
>     cheers,
>
>     Rolf Turner
>



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