[KLUG Hardware] Toshiba 1135-S155 Was "HP ze4220"

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> I am looking to get a laptop myself and this thread has helped barrow it
> down some.

Glad to help; it is really confusing.

> I am currently looking at Toshiba, Compaq and HP.  The biggest thing that
> bothers me about the HP and Compaq is the shared video/system memory.  Any
> thoughts on that? Adam, what was youreason to move away from HP?

The Intel i810 in this Toshiba uses shared memory (I think),  the Sis
Chipset in my workstation at the offices uses shared memory; it has
never caused me any problem except on a crappy local brand server we had
for awhile, but that had an AMD processor in it, so I scrapped it the
first chance I got.

> There is an hp (ze4365) $999
>      Mobile AMD Athlon XP processor 2200+ (1.80GHz)
>      40GB enhanced IDE, 512MB DDR SDRAM
>      15" XGA TFT screen
>      24x/8x/8x/8x DVD+CD-RW combo drive
>      Integrated 802.11 wireless LAN
>       USB 1.0

Yep,  this is one the HPs I looked at.  But I couldn't find any
technical information and no information on Linux compatibility.  Lots
of people seemed to have installed on various Toshiba models (of course
ever model can have entirely different guts unfortunately).

> or Toshiba (2435S225) $1299
> Intel Pentium 4 Processor (2.40GHz)
>   512MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM (256MB x 2)
>   15" XGA Display (1024 x 768)
>   40GB HDD (4200rpm)
>   DVD/CD-RW
>   Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
>   3-USB (2.0) ports
>   iLINK (IEEE 1394) port
>   Infrared port
>   SD media slot

It only has two memory slots.  So if you can swing an upgrade to 1Gb
(assuming the model supports it) right of the bat it is a good thing or
you'll have to scratch your 2 256s.  Kind of cheese rock IMHO,  why not
just put in a single 512?

> Running Linux on this laptop is VERY important so I have tried to
> investigate as much as possible but it is hard to do on some newer laptops.
> I am hoping that is a good sign and it is just more common for Linux to
> support laptops.

I think Linux hardware support has made huge strides lately.  I never
even booted XPeee on mine,  first boot was with the BSware Disc 1 and
everything just worked.  If it had been XPeee Pro-stitute I might have
kept the partition by XPeee Home is totally useless cripple ware.  If
you need to use M$ make sure you get XPee Pro-stitute installed or the
upgrade CD.

> So for you guys that are using Laptops or those that just bought do you have
> any advise?

britz also just purchased a Toshiba, from the line that seems a bit more
common that mine, and his seems to work fine - video, audio, etc... 
Mine is an 1135-S155, I forget what britz's is.

Resizing the NTFS partition to get both XPee and Linux has proven to be
a pain-in-the-rumpus, but doable with freely available tools. (britz
needs to run Quickbooks).