How do I find if my particular computer is going to have problems when I install linux?

Question

The IT lady just gave me a laptop to keep!

I've always wanted to have Linux install to play with so the first thing I did is search stackoverflow for Linux Distro suggestions and found it here. However they also mention that you should search around to see if anyone's had any problems with your drivers and that distro. Now all I know is that this is a Toshiba Tecra A5 - I havent' even booted it up yet but when I do how should I go about researching whether the drivers are compatible with Ubuntu or whatever I choose to use? Should I just be googling Ubunto+DriverName or are there better resources?

Answer 1

I would look in (at least) these two places:

http://www.linuxcompatible.org/compatibility.html

http://www.linux-drivers.org/

Answer 2

Many distros, Ubuntu included, have a "live" mode. You download the .iso image, burn the CD, and then boot from the CD. The OS will run directly off the CD without installing anything. It will run slowly, because it's reading from the CD, but it should give you the opportunity to test your hardware.

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Answer 3

Personally, I wouldn't worry about it... if you do dual boot (which I recommend), then you can easily fall back to Windows (or whatever is installed).

I have set up 3 laptops with linux, 2 Ubuntu and 1 Fedora 8. 2 of them had issues with the wireless network card, and 2 had issues with the video card (1 was easier problem to fix). In both cases, I was able to solve the problem with enough googling... the Ubuntu forums are particularly good at having resolutions to problems you may face.

So... it may be some work to resolve issues you have, but with enough effort, you should be able to overcome the problems (sometimes the effort may be high by the way... it took me about a week of idle attempts to solve the first wireless card issue).

Answer 4

I like Linux on Laptops you pick a notebook, and they recommend the best distro for it. The data is sometimes slightly dated, so I recommend getting the newest distro of the brand they recommend. For your notebook they recommend Ubuntu. The other option is just to try a live CD. Many distros have them, including Ubuntu.

Answer 5

You can try Linux-On-Laptops. A quick search shows this Tecra A5.

You can also download a LiveCD version, that will tell you if you can get most of your hardware working easily. If the LiveCD works, you're good. If it doesn't, you can just pop it out of the cd-rom drive. No harm done, and you can look at other options.

Answer 6

Most Linux distros have Live CDs that let you run the OS before actually installing it. That is how I found the Linux distribution that would run on my laptop (Ubuntu). If your laptop is older and your afraid it won't be able to handle a modern Linux desktop, look to distro's like Xubuntu, Slax, Damn Small Linux, Puppy Linux, etc. as they ship with desktops that aren't as resource intensive.