ASUS or Toshiba Satellite?

Which laptop would I find better success with Linux, and particularly Ubuntu? If you don't own it, would it be possible to make an educated guess?

ASUS Z35F (I've seen somebody with a sound issue; has it been resolved?)
Toshiba Satellite U205

 

I would recommend googling it or looking at www.tuxmobile.com. Also check www.ubuntuforums.org. Whenever I get time to look up the specs, I should be able to make some educated guesses. But in general, Atheros wireless cards, nVidia graphics cards work well in Linux. Getting suspend to RAM working is an issue that changes from one computer to the other and one distro to another.

 

Yea...I definitely can't find much information on newer laptops & linux compatibility.

Also, I'll be staying away from any dedicated graphics, as I'm trying to shoot for battery life..so just Intel integrated graphics.

I'm most interested in networking & sound, honestly...those two could be deal killers for me.

 

I don't see why you would have any problems with the Satellite. It installed on my machine without a hitch. Suspend to disk, and even RAM, works. Integrated Intel Graphics were detected on install, didn't have to configure X at all. I used Suse, though, and some people seem to have an aversion to it, right now.

Honestly, though...with the way linux is going, I think you would be able to get most distros working on either with minimal work, sound probably being the more difficult b/w the two things you mention, but certainly not impossible, jmo.

 

You have the U205??!!? Usually it takes a few months to a year before most things are supported under Linux nowadays... but if you really have the U205 and say suspend to hd AND ram works, AND the sound....well then, I think I'd be sold.

 

Actually, you'll find that 80 - 90% of things usually work. It's the not straight-forward things that get in the way. For example, I doubt you can easily find a laptop where sound doesn't work out of the box, even on the latest ASUS, Toshiba, HP, or Dell.

 

I don't have the U205, but I don't see why you should have any problems with it. Like was just mentioned, most things work right out of the box. IME, networking in linux has always been easier than playing with the ALSA settings. Even integrated NICs have worked for me, for the most part, w/out any configuration going back many years now.

I have a cheesy little A105-S4284, which has integrated intel graphics and wireless and wired nics onboard. Suse installs without a hitch, everything just works, grub will even setup a dual boot for you with windows as long as you've installed windows first, without any extra steps in the install. Slackware installs with no problems, but takes a little bit of configuration, small stuff that I don't have to look up anymore b/c it's common things (X, ALSA), things which are easy to figure out if you read a little bit even as a new user to linux. FreeBSD has been the same as Slack, ime, on this comp...

...if you really want to be absolutely sure, go to a shop and pop in the live version of whatever distro you're planning on using with whatever comp you're considering getting. It's really the only way to be positive. You can read posts of people on linux forums requesting help from people with the exact same hardware specs as themselves and still receive different results. :shrugs:

 

Well the problem is that the 10-20% that won't configure outta the box is gonna tick me the heck off.

And I did see that one guy had trouble with the ASUS' azalia sound chip (azalia used for modem too, but that won't be needed).

Point being that every laptop is a hack, and the newer it is (only kind i'd buy), the less chance all of it's gonna work with Linux (unless I go with IBM).

 

Suspend to Swap? Suspend to RAM? Card Reader? Dedicated Buttons (volume, brightness, etc.)?? There are several things outside of NIC & ALSA that could be troublesome. But I agree with you...ALSA is what I really fear the most, which is why I'm asking about that ASUS' Azalia sound chip. But it'd be pretty dern swell if both Suspend to swap and suspend to ram worked too!! Just when it worked on my 3 1/2 year old laptop, I went and dropped the damned thing on the ground. DOH!

Great idea...but ASUS isn't sold at any place I've ever heard of and they were my number one choice until I heard of the sound complications. And I don't see too many Thinkpads in stores either, honestly. I'm sure I wouldn't find that Dell D420. Matter of factly, the ONLY even semi-portables I've seen in stores have been Averatec.

Anyway, right now I'm in Starkville, Mississippi...and the ONLY 2 electronic stores around within a 70 mile radius are Radio Shack & Wal-Mart, both of which really aren't known for their laptops. But I will be back to Gulfport, MS in a coupla days, where I can finally visit a Circuit City and an overstock Best Buy (which prolly means still no real portable choices for testing). Why can't Americans buy good laptops already so that I can have better options from a retailer??!?!??