[NTLUG:Announce] Jan 19th, 11am, SuSE 7.3 on a Toshiba 3000-S304 laptop

[announce-admin@ntlug.org]

Remember my Hitachi laptop!  One of the best all time laptops
ever made... everything worked (even laptop suspend).

Well this month I'll be showing off the Toshiba 3000-S304.
It has:
  1Ghz Pentium
  512M RAM
  20G HD
  8x8x4x DVD/CDR/CDRW
  3 USB, 1 Firewire
  IrDA
  Geforce2go w/16M
  Stupid "we only do windows" Winmodem (but hey,
     Toshiba saved a whole $5 by using a Winmodem)

It's been a roller coaster ride getting stuff to work
with this "non-legacy" laptop.  Lots of issues... many
things that Toshiba could correct... more that they
probably won't (sigh).

Toshiba laptops are some of the most Windows-oriented laptops
on the market today.  Many of the problematic standards
for Linux (that is, the standards that go hand-in-hand with
the Windows OS) are being pushed by Toshiba.  Regardless,
it is a good example of a platform that needs a lot more
work... but yet does suprisingly well with Linux inspite
of its Windows-centric architecture.  Great platform for
the Linux hacker, maybe not so great for the newbie.

In particular I will discuss:
   APM vs. ACPI
   Geforce2go (no problems with that btw)
   8x8x4x DVD/CDR/CDRW (no problems with that btw)
   USB, particularly USB-serial since there are no
      RS232 style serial ports on the unit (interesting problem).
   Flaws in the design of the 3000 S304
   Headaches out of the box (Toshiba threatens to sue)
   SuSE 7.3
   Recommendation on the 3000 S304

Main meeting starts at 11am.
See http://www.ntlug.org/cal.html for detail and directions.

Linux Installation Project starts at 9am
Beginning Linux group starts at 10am

BONUS: I nabbed 3 Mandrake Gaming Editions while mismarked
on the internet (for about the price of The SIMS) and we'll
give those away at the meeting!!