Re: [tlug] Favorite Linux laptops these days?

[Lyle H Saxon <llletters@example.com>]

On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 10:11 AM, Keith Bawden <keith@example.com> wrote:
>
> +1 for the Toshiba R731.
>
> I'm now on my fifth Toshiba laptop (all from the dynabook series). All
> five are still in use ...........

I have one six-year old Toshiba laptop that is still working fine,
with no hardware failures.  I had a couple of old 486 DynaBooks that
simultaneously died however (or "were discovered dead in the closet" I
should say).  I think maybe the BIOS maintainer battery (what's the
proper term for that anyway?) died and they lost their BIOS?  Is that
how that works?  (No BIOS, no computer.)  Do very old laptops all die
that way?  Are more modern laptops like that as well, or is the BIOS
stored in flash memory now that doesn't need power to live?

I recently helped a friend with an old Epson laptop.  Its original WXP
OS died on him, so I talked him into trying Linux.  An install of
Ubuntu 11.10 didn't work out well due to (apparently) a problem with
the video driver, but an install of Ubuntu 12.04LTS (Beta-2) worked
fine, with full hardware support and he's happy with it.  A note about
that Epson (Endeavor), one hinge is half-broken, so I didn't come away
from the encounter with a good impression of the mechanical strength
of the machine, but otherwise it's still working well after around...
seven years or so.

Lyle