Will Linux work on my laptop?

Well the lowdown is that I want to get rid of windows xp pro. I am sick of all the problems that arise with it, and the fact that they fix it by restricting what we can do on our own os. Especially SP2. You need SP2 to be more secure but they restrict you from doing many things. Especially sending information through raw sockets. So I want to switch to linux. Here is where I think I might hit a problem. My laptop was designed for Window XP it even has a sticker on it that says so. It is a Toshiba Satellite A75-S206. It is running a P4 and a ATI mobility Radeon 9000 gcard. It has some weird sound card I think Realtek. And of course its touchpad and a few other things. Will it at all be possible to even get linux drivers for this laptops hardware.

Here are the detail specs for the laptop A75-S206

all windows computers come with a sticker that says "designed for widowns blah" it just means it has the capability to run those OS's. It will also depend on what distro of linux you are going to run, but you shouldnt have trouble finding drivers for most of the things on your laptop, Im sure your not the only person using linux on a laptop. What distro were you looking at specificly and maybe some mebers can point you in the right directon of where to get drivers.

Well I am looking for a free distro. So I was leaning more toward Debian I think as it sounds really nice to work with in any situation.

There are a lot of free distros out there. Visit either Linux ISO or Distro Watch. You can also find specific help (based on distro) at Linux Questions Forums.

Yes but what if I can't get the drivers :eek: That could put me at a halt.

Uh... that's what the Linux Question site is for. They can help you with that. The power of linux isn't the distro but rather the impressive knowledge within the community.

For a Toshiba Laptop go with SUSE Linux Professional. You'll have too pay but at least it has drivers and Tools for Toshiba.

Ok but the price is rather steep I am only a freshman in college that can barly pay his car insurance lol.

Try getting a refund on XP pro ;)

I never bought XP Pro I bought a license for it and used my uncles disc. :D

However, since you said SUSE fully supports Toshiba computers then maybe the $60 is worth it. :eek:

check and see if your school offers any discounts. My school participates in MSDN so I get all MS software (except office) for free becasue Im in the ICS program, maybe they have something like that for Linux? or atleast they can get you a discount maybe. but Id check the linux forums like suggested above, they well be able to answer all your questions.

My school does not use linux. Everything is tought on windows. And maybe one course uses unix.

Alot of places still give educational discounts, and just becasue all you see is windows doesnt mean that they dont use other stuff. If all their servers are on windows your school is probably in a bit of trouble...but thats a different topic.

SUSE allows Students a discount, go too the SUSE website in my sig and look around.

From my knowledge the only system in the school that does not use Windows is the computer science departments main server that is both a webserver and file server. That uses Unix.

Thanks alot for your help I will look into it some more and I will ask more questions once I get things sorted out. I have been messing about with Slax-live. Only problem with that is that it does not support all hardware on my laptop and I can't get it to connect to the internet :rolleyes:

www.linuxiso.org, I personally like Slackware linux but get whatever distro you want from there

You could also try to boot your laptop with a Knoppix cd. That way you can check to see which parts of your laptop will and which parts won't work and find drivers for them before your make your switch completely.