Re: Some experience of linux on a Laptop

From: Fabian Arias (dewback@vtr.net)
Date: Sun Jun 24 2001 - 16:08:54 EST


Well, let's see:

On Sun, 24 Jun 2001, John Nilsson wrote:

> Well I thought that it was time for me to give some feedback to the linux
> community. So I will tell you guys a little of my experience with linux so
> far.
>
> I have a Toshiba Portégé 3010CT laptop. That is:
> 266MHz Pentium-MMX
> 4GB HD with 512kb cache (which linux reduces to 0kb)
> 32 Mb EDO RAM
>
> After have tried
> Slackware
> Gentoo
> Linux From Scratch
> Debian
> Mandrake
> and soon ROCK linux
>
> I have come to the conclusion that linux is NOT suitable for the general
> desktop market, I have configured a number of linux routers/fierwalls and am
> really pleased with the scalability, but the harware compatibility is to
> damn low for a general user base. I know this isn't really a Linux issue
> rather a distribution issue, but in the end it's you guys that make the
> drivers. So a little plea is that you let the optimization phase cooldown a
> little and concern your self a little more with compatibility, and ease of
> installation, (tidy up the kernel build system).
>
> On my particular computer the chipset (toshiba specific) is not supported
> wich makes the harddrive unable to run in UDMA and/or use it's cache.
> Somehow this make X totaly unusable. With a little luck if it doesn't hang
> it takes several minutes to launch a simple program.
> This could be X specific, but I doub't it.
>
> So when you speak of being able to run on 386:es I still have problem
> starting X on 266MHz with 32Mb mem. This should not be =)
>
> And regarding my slow HD, could anyone implment an option to mount a
> filesystem while keeping statistics on fileusage so that one could optimize
> physical-file-placement?
>
>
> Features I would like in the kernel:
> 1: Make the whole insmod-rmmod tingie a kernel internal so they could be
> trigged before rootmount.

Kernel module loader?, done.

>
> 2: Compile time optimization options in Make menuconfig

I dunno what do you mean exactly with that.

> 3: Lilo/grub config in make menuconfig

Not the only way to start linux. Make install does with lilo.

> 4: make bzImage && make modules && make modules install && cp
> arch/i386/boot/bzImage /boot/'uname -r' something inside make menuconfig

make install?, done.

>
> 5: Better support for toshiba computers... well try =)

Don't have one.

>
> 6: Wouldn't it be easier for svgalib/framebuffer/GGI/X11 and others if the
> graphiccard drivers where kernel modules?

Have you heard of XFree86 project?.

>
> 7: As I said mount with statistics database of files.

Logging?, it should be enough of that if you take a look at /var/log.

>
> 8: A way to change kernel without rebooting. I have no diskdrive or cddrive
> in my laptop so I often do drastic things when I install a new distribution.
 
Don't you have enough features?. When you install a new aplication you
don't have to reboot three times the machine ;-)
Imposible to do that for now. (Take a look at HURD).

>
> I'm not on the list so please CC me any responses
>
> /John Nilsson
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 ---
 Fabian Arias Mu~oz | Debian GNU/Linux Sid
 Facultad de Cs. Economicas y | Kernel 2.4.5ac17 - ReiserFS
 Administrativas. | "aka" dewback en
 Universidad de Concepcion - Chile | #linuxhelp IRC.CHILE

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