I'm quite happy with this laptop. Here is my experience with installing Linux.

1. Laptop
Satellite 1905-S277 (bought in USA)
Pentium 4 1.6GHz
Memory PC133 512MB

2. Linux kernel 2.4.18
I rebuilt it from 2.2 to 2.4 (see the .config file)
Debian 3 (I couldn't install X with the standard install image, so I upgraded X to 4.4.0)
Gnome 1.4
(see my X86Config file)

3. Sound
I adopted ALSA. Unstable a bit but I will investigate when upgrading the kernel to 2.6.
Intel 820

4.USB
No problem with UHCI

5. Modem/PC card
As my modem is winmodem so I decided to use PC card modem.
Used pcmcia-cs and Hotswap.
My card is Actiontec FM560LK

6. Print
I adopted CUPS.
canon bj-m70
openoffice : OK
mozilla 1.0(xprint) : NG

7. Power
Used acpi kernel patch, not apm.
I can turn the power off when doing shutdown but I can't resume.
However I can resume when using X power-saving function.