Toshiba/Support Rant

To Someone who will listen,

I hope someone will listen to my rant and take it to heart. I purchased a X205-9359. I love the platform. Even though I received the system with a dead pixel on the new LCD/laptop. The main gripe I have is the lack of support for alternate OS's (WinXP, Linux).
The system came with Vista Ultimate. On that note I have one comment “Ultimate failure” that OS is the worst product I have ever had the pleasure of using. I had contacted tech support for help getting XP installed and hit a brick wall. This gave me a sour taste. I reported such in my review of the laptop for your records. And as expected the review didn't hit your web site.
Just to make it clear it is not your product I dislike. It's the OS from M$. I attempted to install XP regardless of the support without luck getting all of things to work properly. I was left with one option reinstall “Vista”, Which I did. and immediately after installed “Ubuntu”. What was amazing was Ubuntu 7.10 worked better out of the box than “XP” and measurably faster than “Vista”.
The issue I have is that you (Toshiba) do not have support for Windows XP and the open source community for your products. The community is there to help you get things working at least on the open source side.
Over the last few weeks I've been working on getting the audio to work properly. For some reason the “Intel”/”Realtek” chips are having issues under Alsa. The audio works but is poor quality for the speaker system available. This is not just “Toshiba” either it's the hda-Intel chipsets.
I have read many posts of folks with “Toshiba”, “Dell”, “HP”, “Asus”, and others with issues similar. The community has been coming together to help and get thing functional. I find it refreshing in contrast to the support from the corporate entities.
I have read other forums on the topic of “Toshiba” lacking support for “XP”. Many people are not pleased, due to lack of a choice and support. I understand you have a deal with M$ to OEM their OS. I think it's time for some corporate responsibility on this topic. Support your patrons or loose them. More than one post said they will never by another “Toshiba” product (any product) because of your stance on these PC support issues.
In my opinion M$ overstepped it's bounds this time and will pay for it with market share by forcing people to migrate to Vista. Just the software incompatibility issue alone is enough. I could go on and on considering/contemplating the immoral actions M$ uses.
The guiding light here is the corporate adoption of “Vista” which is far far behind there expectations. But M$ may have one hope that folks will migrate when they no longer support “XP”. Hence Forcing people to use “Vista”. This I feel people will fight, at least the people who want to be able to use the new faster machines they bought. OEM's like “Toshiba” have been stuffing “Vista” down everyones throat. Which I am one with this laptop. The feeling people get when they bring home the new PC/laptop is euphoria until they go to install the applications they already own. So what pops up, this application is not compatible with M$ “Vista” please check with the software vendor for a solution. This ends up with please purchase the new version which is compatible with M$ “Vista”. More and more money for a far inferior product than it's predecessor.
If you would support the open source community by supporting your own products they would in turn return the favor. They will help develop, debug, and deploy the drivers/applications required for your equipment. This has a benefit cost reduction for deployment of a Ubuntu system (see “Dell”) and the cost reduction of the OS purchase ((see format C:/) M$). I truly believe that M$ monopoly power is having a reverse effect on at least some consumers. I for one try to find an open source product to use instead of a proprietary one.
Once I had done the trial and error of “Vista” (ouch) and attempted to run “XP” without luck, I was forced to reinstall “Vista”. “Vista” is only required to use the HDDVD and TV Tuner. After being completely frustrated with the laptop via the inept OS. I installed “Ubuntu” as stated earlier. Moral of the story. force people to use “Vista” and you give them the reason they have been looking for to find something better. Which the Linux community has been working on for a long time. The funny thing about Linux is that they are not revolutionary and change everything they are evolutionary. The changes do not make your previously installed application get obsoleted via OS update. amazing.

I would like to thank you for forcing me to dump the M$ product line. I feel everyone should get the breath of fresh air too.

Please support Linux. It IS the future.

Thanks,
Gon-Phishin

 

Welcome to the cut-throat laptop market. Like outsourcing, supporting one OS is a cost cutting measure, which means cheaper laptops.

 

And next time when you want to rant, could you use paragraphs? That really hurt my eyes trying to read it all.