[tlinux-users:08846] Re: Official Linux support (Was: P105-9722 issues..)

--- Thomas Charron <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Jan 30, 2008 6:56 AM, bestonnet
> <[email protected]> wrote:
> > Pretty much every laptop maker will only officially
> > support the software that came with the computer (and
> > any Vista express downgrades that may be offered) and
if
> > you want to use anything else you are on your own.
> 
>   This would only be valid if they actually supported the
> released software.  For instance, the P105-9722 ships(ed)
> with Windows XP.
> There is currently no updates to say, the graphics
> drivers so that they actually function without known
bugs. 

Just get the drivers from nVidia, pretty much every laptop
manufacturer has old graphics drivers on their web site.

> > If you want support from the seller for running Linux
> > on a laptop then you will need to find someone that
will
> > sell you a laptop with a Linux distribution
> > pre-installed (there are companies that take major
brand
> > laptops and put Linux on them and there are a few no
> > name companies that sell generic laptops with Linux on
> > them).  It's not just Linux, those running *BSD, BeOS
or
> > even a version of Windows different to what came with
> > their laptop (or even a hacked version of MacOS X) are
> > in the same situation as we are all in.
> 
>   But do use the 'Linux Support' site to infer Linux
> support, which as we've seen, is left up to the users of
> the list.

Linux users are in a better situation than if you wanted to
run Windows 98 on your laptop.

> > Widespread market demand (i.e. major purchasing
> > decisions being decided upon Linux support) is really
> > about the only thing that will change that (remember
> > than Toshiba is a business and that if providing
support
> > for Linux users costs them money without bringing them
> > any extra users then they aren't going to be willing to
> > pay much for it, that's why we get a web site and
> > mailing list run by people who probably have other
> > things to do and are doing the administration of the
web
> > site and mailing list when they have time available).
> 
>   Unfortunately, the cost is negligible when the kernel
> development team offers free development efforts.

There will probably be some involvement from lawyers and
depending on what they are releasing they may have to do an
audit to ensure that Toshiba actually does have the right
to release it and if there are sections that are
copyrighted by others then they'll need to negotiate to
release them (which would not be guaranteed).

That actually will cost Toshiba money.

They have been able to release information in the past so
it's not impossible but for it to make sense from a
business point of view they'll need to think that it brings
in more profit (from better support giving them more Linux
users) than the cost of it.

When it comes to releasing the information there are
probably a lot of people in Toshiba who would like you to
have it (in fact most of the people there would) but to be
able to release it they will probably need to show that
Toshiba will lose significant business by not doing so.

> > They still seem to be using those in some of their
> > recent laptops (though not all, probably nothing in the
> > consumer models).
> 
>   The P105-9xxx wasn't considered a 'consumer model'.  It
> was the first laptop Toshiba released with the higher end
> nVidia 7900 series video cards at a 2k price point.  But
I
> suppose their definitions of internal target audiences
may
> differ from their marketing depertments.

The 'consumer models' are those in the Satellite and Qosmio
series, anything which is based on a Satellite will
probably also have a Phoenix BIOS (which means all of the
Satellite Pro and some Tecra models).  I'd expect the
Portege and Libreto models to have a Toshiba BIOS.

A laptop with a high end video card would be considered
very desirable by gamers (who were probably a (the?) major
target market for that model).


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