[LUNI] Sony VAIO laptop opinions wanted

[doug_dallmer]

From: "Patrick R. White" <patwhite at interaccess.com>
Sent: Wednesday, June 04, 2003 4:29 PM

| Does anybody have experience with these laptops?  Specifically, the
| keyboard action, durability in general and the ease of installing Linux
| and FreeBSD on them? What are the warranty options on them?  Are they
| still functioning 5 years out? Are accessories easy to get and reliable?
|


I am pounding this out on a PCG-818 laptop purchased in Feb '99.   It has
been to Europe, E. Europe, S.America, Mexico, and of course all over the USA
in my consulting work.    It has been turned on & off at lease once a day.
At home I use it as a replacement for a desktop with USB connected hard disk
& CDRW.

Other than having to replace the battery (about $200) I have had no
mechanical/electrical problems.  I dual boot Win98 & Linux (too many
versions to count and still having some troubles with getting the right
combination of kernel & hardware).

My daughter has a 3 year old 505 model and she had to replace the battery
also.  It also has been dragged all around the country.

Other than the battery I have had absolutely no problems.   I will replace
this soon with another Sony.

I am relatively easy on a key board.   I do not know what accessories you
have in mind,  I only have an extra power brick for on the road.


I use Partition Magic 8? to go 60% in Win98 & balance in Linux

hda1 = Window 98 boot & Drive C:
hda2 = Window Logical
           hda5 = Drive D: - All software installed by me
           hda6 = Drive E: - All my data files (makes it easy to backup)
hda3 = Swap
hda4 = /  (root for Linux) as an ext2 file format

I STRONGLY recommend that you have a USB or PCMCIA external hard disk to
define as /mnt/users where you put ALL of the non-Linux distribution stuff.
That way you can load & reload the hda4 partition as often as you want,
restore from crashes, etc. without having to worry about your application
stuff.   This is school of hard knocks experience.

Doug Dallmer
|