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Qosmio Review: Part 3b

Ubuntu Linux

Yes that's right, I managed to get Ubuntu installed on this machine. I installed Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) as it was at the Release Candidate (RC) stage when I tried it.

It all runs perfectly smoothly. I had to change the boot options on the installation CD, due to the Nvidia graphics card, which needed a proprietary driver. This was the most painful part of the installation, as on a screen with a native resolution of 1920x1200, I had to run at 800x600 :'(

After that it was all smooth sailing, I compiled a few apps, and used it as I would my own. Everything worked just fine, I was impressed that the volume control (the disc "thing" on the left of the keyboard) even worked! Sadly the touch buttons didn't work, but I expected this, as I know they're controlled by software and not hardware.

I didn't manage to get the fingerpint reader to work either, which I wasn't too fussed about, but it would've been nice. Overall I was impressed with the Linux experience I had with the Qosmio. The battery life didn't differ from Windows, though it doesn't on my own laptop either.

So overall, the Qosmio does actually work pretty well with Ubuntu in my experience, I wasn't expecting much because Toshiba laptop can be notoriously difficult to get working properly (just read through some of the threads in the UbuntuForums ).

There are also some pictures of the qosmio running Ubuntu if you would like to take a look :