Dec 24 2006
Ubuntu 6.10 impressions on Toshiba Satellite A105 S4134
My very first experience with UNIX/Linux was Red Hat 2.1, when it first came out in 1996. Since then, I “lived and breathed” it. When I was in high school, my friends and I started a Linux User Group in Spokane, and later on, founded Toolbuilders Labs LLC. After our business moved towards security/cryptography applications, I switched exclusively to OpenBSD for a few years and used it as my primary desktop and development platform, so 1998 was the last time I actually used Linux (as a desktop machine). Since then, I’ve also purchased 3 Macs, so basically, I’ve been using BSDs all of this time (OpenBSD, FreeBSD, Darwin/OS X) but I’ve always been curious about whats going on in Linux World.
FreeBSD
I was very impressed with how small the default OpenBSD install was, and how well organized and clean the file system layout and all the configs were. The only complaint I had was the lack of software that I could get on Linux, especially multimedia, like playing movies and watching TV (I had a TV Card). OpenBSD is targeted more towards servers and security, less towards the end-users.After a while, I discovered FreeBSD! FreeBSD was the logical choice for me. It has everything I like about OpenBSD, plus thousands of programs to choose from. It is a beautiful system. It is the cleanest, most well-designed and engineered of all operating systems in my opinion.Any time I’d try to go back and use Linux (after using Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” and FreeBSD 6.X), it would feel like a hack job to me.
I really like the FreeBSD file system layout, their package management, ports, awesome documentation. A lot of FreeBSD development comes from Russia and Japan so they have great localized support and translations for all manual pages, handbook, howtos, and shell commands. I could make everything be in Russian, just by setting my login user class to by of type “russian”.Linux really isn’t an operating System … at least in the FreeBSD-sense of the word. “Linux” is really just a Linux kernel.A Linux distribution is a bundle of Linux kernel, GNU-based commands and utilities, some form of package management (deb, rpm) and X11 with some window mangers.The FreeBSD, in comparison, is just one. Its not separated in all of those different components, and the whole thing is under source control.
There is only one FreeBSD Kernel, only one set of BSD commands and utilities (userland), packages and ports, documentation and way of configuring things. FreeBSD development is either in stable or current tree. You can sync to either one you like, or just use snapshots of the “stable” tree, also known as “releases”. Everything in FreeBSD is tracked under source control, including kernel, userland, system manuals and documentation, so you can just pull the latest sources and recompile the whole system (and kernel) by typing “make world”. I really like that about FreeBSD. It is engineered, not hacked and pieced together! To recompile a kernel you simply “make kernel”!
Ubuntu: Anyway, back to Ubuntu. So, I was kinda disappointed with Linux distro’s for a long time and I’d never consider switching to it from FreeBSD. I have Toshiba Satellite A105 S4134 Laptop dual booted with FreeBSD and Windows XP. I use both operating systems as development platforms. I don’t ever play games … etc, but I do need WiFi and sound. After many attempts, I gave up on trying to get my built-in WiFi card to work on FreeBSD. Eventually, I did get the sound to work with the comercial Open Sound System (OSS) driver, but the native FreeBSD 6.x drivers didn’t have support my sound card.Here is my impression of Ubuntu: It is Stunning! It is sooo easy to install and use. I couldn’t believe it. I also have a 2 Macs installed with OS X 10.4.I was surprised to see that Gnome is actually catching up on GUI usability and KDE has really cool graphics and effects, similar to Aqua’s (Mac’s proprietary windowing system, they don’t use X11).
Anyway, I put in the installer CD, and it started with a very nice logo. After that, it detected my video card and a USB mouse, X11 started in full-resolution and played a welcome sound! My WiFi card was also detected right out of the box. I was so impressed!I spent hours trying to get that stuff to work on FreeBSD, recompiling the kernel with all kinds of tweaks … etc.The installer is also a “live” cd. It lets you play with all the stuff you’ll get without actually installing the system. So, I erased my FreeBSD partition and reformatted it with ext3. I didn’t need swap since this laptop has like 2GB of RAM.The installer went very smooth. Everything worked and it didn’t mess up my Windows XP partition.
After I rebooted, Ubuntu offered me a list of available updates! Even though I am a developer, unlike all of my friends, I don’t like to mess with configurations and the system itself (unless that is my goal). Most of the time I have very specific things I am trying to accomplish and I just want my computer to work! I am just another user. I just want to spend my time writing software and I want all of my tools to work and be available to me immediately if I need them.So, out of the box I had everything I needed:
- OpenOffice 2.0
- FireFox (SwiftFox, optimized version)
- Evolution
- JDK 1.5, Eclipse, ant
- Compilers, Interpreters, and other Dev tools.
- Automatic Software Updates (for the system itself and all the packages)
The sound card, video card, USB, bluetooth, power management, DVD, and CD-burning works! On FreeBSD I only got the video card, sound and usb to work. I am VERY satisfied with Ubuntu, and I am actually going to keep it! Every piece of hardware on my laptop was detected and everything is working perfectly!Thanks to Ubuntu project, awesome job!
Screenshot:
December 24th, 2006 at 6:02 pm
Very good article. i liked it a lot. Thanks. Indeed Ubuntu is a good distro, which works out of box and finds by default almost all hardware. So, hope the 7.04 will be even more impressive. :)
December 26th, 2006 at 11:04 am
Good article!
I submitted it to ubuntuhq.com, as you wished. You can do that yourself by clicking the “submit news” button.
March 18th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Nice!
I’m glad to find folks who is in the same state of impression from Ubuntu. I spent several days to make my Mandriva work on Toshiba, but failed. Video card did not work, though it was listed as supported in Mandriva release. I damned this distro and switched to Ubuntu. So lovely!
FreeBSD is not the system you may use with no problems. It require a heap of knowledge and experience in Unix.
Ubuntu actually can be used by a novice.
I advice you guys test SuSe 10.2 too. It is a good well-engineered decision from Germany. Same as with Ubuntu I had no problems during installation (except for winmodem). But I just got used to rpm-based systems.
Good luck!
April 16th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Ha! I was searching for a distro that works well enough to replace windows on the very same model of laptop. Thanks for the info, I’m swayed to change.
May 30th, 2007 at 6:46 pm
Dmitry -
Excellent article! I love reading reviews from people who actually use the thing they’re reviewing (as opposed to professional reviewers who just go down a checklist.) At the same time, most of the “real user” reviews I’ve read are by complete n00bz0r, so they don’t feel very meaningful. You know your stuff, you know what you like, you like Ubuntu. Beautiful.
However, I have a question - you say that power management works. I have a Satellite A105-S2051 (probably pretty similar to your machine, but not exactly the same) and I recently installed Ubuntu 7.04 (again, not the same as you, but in the same ballpark.) Battery life is better than under XP (yes, I’m coming from Windows - please forgive me), but Suspend and Hibernate do not work at all. The machine goes to sleep all right, but it won’t wake up again - I have to unplug it and take out the battery, and then it will cold boot.
So my question is: did you have to do anything special to get power management working, or did it work straight off? No need for technical details unless you want to get into it - I definitely agree with your sentence that starts “Even though I am a developer”! I just want to get a heads-up from somebody who’s got it working.
Thanks!
May 30th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Hello Mark, I don’t seem to have the same issues with power management — it goes to sleep and wakes up without any problems. Suspend and hibernate work for me. XP likes to spin disks for no good reason :) its probably flushing memory state to disk. The funny thing is, I am typing this on my laptop, but I am using Vista Enterprise. I work at Microsoft now. Haha. But, its dual-booted. I am still working on different Open-Source project on my own time :)
May 31st, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Thanks, Dmitry!
So it worked “out-of-the-box”? Damn. Wish mine did. Oh well. My next step is apparently going to be patching my kernel to include ’suspend2′. I can hardly wait.
So how’s life at Microsoft? And how are you liking Vista on that machine? So far most of my experience with Vista has been supporting my clients who need to run “legacy” software… needless to say, as a result I’ve formed a pretty negative opinion! Aero Glass seems like a pretty poor trade-off for not being able to run the programs you need… but then, most of them couldn’t use Linux or BSD for the same reason!
Do vstrechi…
July 20th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
i was installed ubuntu 7.04 feisty fawn in my toshiba A105 laptop. my problem is the sound not heard. i was choose autodetect option, but it’s not work. the second problem is, when i want to shutdown the system. The system could not shutdown well. the display off. the system was down. but the power off the note book still on. So i must push the power button to make it shut off. Anybody can help me….??????? Please…..
August 21st, 2007 at 7:06 pm
Yeah I think Linux is very hard to use! Until I found Ubuntu Linux!
Ubuntu rocks because:
-It finds all my hardware
-All my applications are categorized automaticaly
-It includes everything you need for everyday use
-Its easier to use and more organized than Windows
-Its a piece of cake to install and it doesnt take to long!
-Ubuntu fits on a CD
-It runs fast and doesnt
-The update program is great
-It looks clean, simple, minimalistic and beautiful
-Wine lets you use many Windows programs in Ubuntu
April 25th, 2008 at 12:30 am
I tested this camera for a client. I didn’t have the light running for more than 15 minutes. The battery lasted approximately 6 hours before recharging. The LCD, however, had a few dead pixels - never saw this before. Tried returning for exchange and had to put up quite a fight. Anyone else seen this? http://www.batteryfast.co.uk
July 21st, 2008 at 6:00 am
Our A105’s battery also worked 6 hours brand new, now that
it was in storage a year it wont hold more than 2 hours real charge in it. (Put away, taken apart). I think this is an issue overall with Toshiba batteries as they have recognized particular other models and have a battery exchange program, for those others. (total laptop age is now about 2 years old).
August 29th, 2008 at 3:42 am
Hiya Dima,
Good to see you are doing well these days. I heard that you were working at Microsoft from Mattie.
But back to the article. I found that Fedora 9 has a similar experience to installing Ubuntu. It detected and appropriately set up my sound and wifi cards. Video defaulted to the nv driver, but that was to be expected for my nvidia card. X was properly configured. Overall an enjoyable experience. Though I can definitely give Ubuntu the package edge. At least 5 times more packages available then Fedora 9. But there are additional repositories for missing packages like Livan.org.
In short, Fedora 9 is an awesome install though I still prefer BSD’s and Gentoo’s Ports systems.