Linux on lots of Compaq laptops http://www.linux-on-laptops.com/compaq.html

http://www.compaq.com/ has lots of service packs (called RomPaqs?)

http://criggie.dyndns.org/network/#slate is Criggie?'s Compaq Concerto.

Compaq's lineage of machines: Presarios are "Home quality" desktops/laptops. That is, shit. Deskpro is the business line of desktops, ending around the P233. Evo are the Business line of laptops. Proliant/Prosignia are servers, with weird boards generally, but lots of GO.

BIOS access on a Compaq - Press F10 repeatedly when the block cursor appears in the top right corner of the screen. Normally about the point where the machine beeps twice. A good proportion of the Compaq machines have their system software stored in a "diagnostics" partition, which is often sized from 500 kilobytes to 10 or 20 megabytes, and is positioned at the front of the first hard drive, but is partition 3, aka /dev/hda3. You can download these files from www.compaq.com (somewhere)