Is Presario CQ60 windows-only?

Hi,
Is the Compaq Presario CQ60 a windows-only computer? I tried a variety of
live CDs of Linux-based, OpenSolaris-based and *BSD operating systems to
see if they will work and was dissapointed to find out that they don't.
The OpenSolaris operating systems were unable to even run the graphical
interface. Same with PC-BSD and NetBSD. Linux ones fared better although
the camera, sound and network did not work.

I'm in Canada, and here lock-ins are against the law (a good thing).
Therefore I have to assume that HP does not lock its customers into a
particular OS. So, other than windows, which OS works perfectly with the
Presario CQ60? Thank you.

Am 28.05.2010 15:38, * HB:
> Hi,
> Is the Compaq Presario CQ60 a windows-only computer?

There is no "Windows-only" computer, every general purpose computer can
run any operating system that is compatible with it.

> I tried a variety of
> live CDs of Linux-based, OpenSolaris-based and *BSD operating systems to
> see if they will work and was dissapointed to find out that they don't.
> The OpenSolaris operating systems were unable to even run the graphical
> interface. Same with PC-BSD and NetBSD. Linux ones fared better although
> the camera, sound and network did not work.

This shows that either you have to do further steps to configure these
operating systems with your laptop, or some components of your laptop
are not supported by these operating systems. Therefore it makes sense
to actually check that all necessary components are supported before
installing another operating system. There also are Linux and Solaris
groups that can help you to get things running.

> I'm in Canada, and here lock-ins are against the law (a good thing).
> Therefore I have to assume that HP does not lock its customers into a
> particular OS.

No vendor "locks" you to a certain operating system. However, it should
be obvious that HP can't *support* every OS out there, so for consumer
hardware like your Presario this support is usually limited to Windows.

Benjamin

On 5/28/2010 10:38 AM, HB wrote:
> Hi,
> Is the Compaq Presario CQ60 a windows-only computer? I tried a variety of
> live CDs of Linux-based, OpenSolaris-based and *BSD operating systems to
> see if they will work and was dissapointed to find out that they don't.
> The OpenSolaris operating systems were unable to even run the graphical
> interface. Same with PC-BSD and NetBSD. Linux ones fared better although
> the camera, sound and network did not work.
>
> I'm in Canada, and here lock-ins are against the law (a good thing).
> Therefore I have to assume that HP does not lock its customers into a
> particular OS. So, other than windows, which OS works perfectly with the
> Presario CQ60? Thank you.

"other than windows, which OS works PERFECTLY with the Presario CQ60?"

In short, you are asking the question which OS has software drivers for
all of the hardware built into the CQ60?

NO OS will always work perfectly "out of the box", without installing
additional hardware drivers. When Microsoft releases an OS, it packages
the most popular drivers available at the time the software is generally
release. ("Popular" often means that hardware vendors pay Micro$oft for
the privilege of including the drivers on the release media.)

When HPaq builds the "restore" DVD or the restore image on the restore
partition, it includes all the drivers for any special hardware that is
is not included in the standard Windows release.

The live CDs you tried do not have all the drivers ever ever done for a
specific version of an OS, only the most common ones, subject to the
capacity limits of the CD or DVD media.

If you were to do some analysis of the manufacturer and model of each
chipset in the computer, you might be able to find Linux drivers to
install on it.


If you want to experiment further, buy another hard drive for your CQ60,
and install the software on the second hard drive. Then go to the
software repository for whatever OS you install and look for drivers.

Nobody ever said that Linux or *BSD were perfect. They're just quite
good, and Micro$oft could learn a lot about design of operating systems
from them, if they were open to learning... Ben Myers