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[labellementeuse]

it arrived at the parent's place today. It's a toshiba. Mum read of "teeraa8c2d1.661G80DVD" blah de blah, so having filtered through mum-speak I'm pretty sure it's this one. 1.66Ghz, 1G memory, 80G hard drive. She mumbled some junk about the DVD player but presumably it will write DVDs which is a MAJOR plus.

Verdict: My current baby, Nita, is 1.69Ghz, 512, 40G. So basically everything's doubled except processor speed (that is processor speed, right, GHz?) I have no idea if I'm even going to notice the difference, to be honest. *shrug* Anyone got any experience with toshiba? Good stuff? Bad stuff? what am I going to call something to go with Kit-the-external and Dairine-the-pod? Nita 2.0 is always a plan, of course. Or - ooh - Ponch.

ETA: oh yeah, and the OS is Vista Business (or that's what my mama said anyway) and I'm thinking quite seriously about installing ubuntu. Maybe a... dual boot? is that what it's called when you can pick which one you want to open up with? Yeah, well anyway. What can ubuntu do and is it hard? I have a pal who runs it and I might have a flick at that.

Comments

[gianp.livejournal.com]

You'll notice a big speed increase by virtue of having 1G of RAM rather than 512. That's generally the bottleneck in most desktop systems.

Toshiba laptops are usually pretty good. We've bought a bunch of them at work and they've been fine for the most part.

Definitely think about an Ubuntu dual-boot. It's pretty easy. Maybe get someone knowledagable to hold your hand through the process, but mostly it should just be a matter of putting the CD in the drive, rebooting and going through the steps. There should be some good step-by-step guides on the intarweb to dual-booting Ubuntu with Vista Business Edition or whatever it is.

[kitsunerei88]

I heard Vista sucked. ^^

However, I have a toshiba and this baby is seriously stronger than my desktop at home (which doesn't ACTUALLY say that much because my desktop at home has like 40GB HD and like 512 MB RAM or something, which was great when I started high school, but) My toshiba has held up pretty well through the abuse I put to it (ie dragging it everywhere around campus, eating around it, so on) and I really like it.

Just a note though, your LCD might start going after like, six months? Some of them do, some don't, mine did. However, you should have gotten a year's warranty from Toshiba so even if that does happen you can get it replaced on warranty.

[kuril.livejournal.com]

My experience with Vista... it's a big undeniable suck.UAC is a pain. Wireless is all messed up. Its UI is very sloppy (I'm not taking about Aero, but the general layout of things). If it were not 7am I would be able to think of other things.

Oh, and defrag takes eons to complete with no graphical display or other info to show why.

A lot of software still doesn't work.

And then there's that built-in DRM issue.

[kuril.livejournal.com]

It's probably a dual-core. Most laptops don't ship with an Intel solo. If it has 1gb of RAM and VISTA, I bet it's a 1.66ghz dual core -- probably the T2050. You should definitely check and see (there will be a sticker on the laptop somewhere saying "Core Duo inside"

It'd be a shame if the laptop were a Solo or an older model, because 1.6ghz by itself is too slow IMHO.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

I was guessing that "teeraa8c2d1.66" translated to tecra A8 dual-core 1.66 Ghz. I would be really surprised if it was single core since insurance has to buy it new and there just isn't much on the market that's single core.

I checked the website and pretty sure it's T2300, although websites aren't always 100% up to date.

[kuril.livejournal.com]

I didn't notice the last part.. I have Kubuntu installed on my Dell1505 (with a 1.6ghz Dual Core). Dual boot is pretty easy. You may be a little put off by the partitioner, though, so find a friend that understands whats going on there if necessary.

If you want an interface more like Windows, use Kubuntu instead of Ubuntu. Kubuntu has KDE, which is more Windows like and infinitely configurable. Ubuntu has Gnome. Gnome is basically designed for the lowest common denominator and isn't very Windows like. Its not very configurable.

Dual boot works great with Vista.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

OK. Yeah, I am concerned about finding someone who really "gets it" but I have several friends doing cosc and I know at least one person who's actually running ubuntu right now, so.

and thanks for that tip - I was looking at some ubuntu screenshots and I didn't really like what was going on there, that's for sure. it looked a bit... mac like, and I'm totes lame and do not like change. something I'm really struggling with is the idea of having to switch over all my software to opensource which would be fine except I use photoshop a lot, and I'm persnickety about my media players, and all that kind of thing. :P so it's a big change for me, dual boot is definitely looking like the best option.

[kuril.livejournal.com]

I think you'll really love Amarok. Your friend might know about it. It's the best media player in the World, and right now, is only available for Linux. But, I have to warn, because MP3 is a non-free format, you will have to install an additional package in order for you to listen to MP3s.

BTW, OpenOffice is getting better and better at interoperability with the MS Office Suite. You may want to check out the Windows version and see how well it works for you. My only nitpick is that its interface (especially for presentations) is terrible. But there is KOffice for KDE and it's nicer but not as good at MS Office support.

By the way, if you download Kubuntu and burn it to disc, it boots as a live CD. So you can see if it works on your laptop and if you like the interface. Same with Ubuntu. It'll only install if you double click the Install icon. Is your laptop a widescreen model? Your display may be configured sub-optimally in that case. Even if it isn't, you may find your display resolution less than it ought to be. That's probably the biggest show stopper of all -- that display detection isn't very well done.

Give the Kubuntu live-CD a try :-)

[sennical.livejournal.com]

My roomie has a Toshiba that's always been good to her. That's about as much experience as I have with Toshibas. Not that I would know much, since I love OS X to pieces. :DD

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

You'll notice a difference, definitely - dual core is much nicer than single, and the ram will make a difference. It'll definitely help for keeping a browser open and watching movies, for instance. What I'd want to know, though, is whether there's a warranty and what it entails.

Mike also asks why you want to run Ubuntu, as from his experience there's nothing it does that Windows doesn't do at about the same level.

The real issue is still - you're giving your parents, what, $1k? For $1200 you can get equivalent or better off the shelf; for $1400, you can get significantly better. So in terms of intermediate step between what you've got and what you want: yes, it's better. But it's not exactly a bargain.

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

pretty sure my current is also dual core like anything decent. and obviously there will be a warranty.

because I don't like working for the man? duh.

and I asked you not to bring this up. please don't fucking do it again.

[sixth-light.livejournal.com]

Dual core computers were first released in 2005. Your current computer is older than that, QED, not dual core.(Besides, very decent computers were still single-core as late as six months ago - and still are, since most of them will still be in use!) This means you do get that performance improvement with the new one, so...yay?

Microsoft make the same profit whether you use Windows or not, since it's included in the computer price. I'd hardly call using an operating system "working for the man". That's not to say you may not enjoy using Ubuntu more, of course, once you've tried it.

I understand that this may not be what you want to hear: but please don't ask me to lie to you, by word or omission, because what I have to say makes you uncomfortable. Especially not when you originally posted saying you were unhapy with this whole deal - how, then, wqs (and is) it wrong for me to provide hard evidence as to why you were right to feel that way?

[labellementeuse.livejournal.com]

because I asked you not to.