The Sony Vaio VGN and Linux

For quite some time now, my preferred desktop OS has been Ubuntu. I made the switch from Fedora after a bad experience with graphics drivers between Core 5 & 6 and decided that Fedora was just a little too cutting edge for me. This was around when I had been playing around with Ubuntu for client desktops and warming to with each new version. For me, the transition to a Debian base system was uncomfortable and I avoided it for a while. The crunch came in early 2007 when I received a Sony Vaio VGN series "hip-top" computer. At the time it was pretty stunning and Sony were pushing them hard - which is probably why they were giving them away to guys like me: so that we would show them off to our clients. In the end, tablets killed off this technology avenue.

Sony Vaio VGN series

I was pretty impressed with the VGN, mainly because it was loaded with peripherals and came with a great docking station. Of course, the first task was to give Windows the flick and install Linux.

With Fedora, almost nothing worked, so I blew that away and installed SuSe. This was much better and most things "worked". The problem was the peculiar UI - which for a touch screen was difficult to work with. Changing the UI on SLED was a problem and it felt a little too "locked down" for my liking. It became painful, so it had to go as well.

Ubuntu seemed to be about halfway there. Some of the special buttons would not work, but I could live without them. It fitted with my purposes at the time, so I was off and running with Ubuntu. It didn't take too long before I preferred it to Fedora.

One of the things I used to dislike about Ubuntu was the default Gnome interface - I preferred KDE. Yes, I know it's also the default for Fedora, but switching interfaces with Fedora was simple. For the Vaio, I chose to install Kubuntu; which at the time was the specific distro for Ubuntu users with KDE. Later I decided to switch back to Gnome (when Gnome updated)and that proved to be a superior experience. The ever present issue was always screen resolution - which never really "fit" the screen. 

I persevered for a few years with the Vaio - mainly for it's 'wow' factor - until I bought a Asus Transformer T300 tablet with keyboard and after that I almost immediately stopped using the Vaio. Despite the tablet being far less powerful, in had a 10" screen and a real keyboard. To make the Vaio usable, I had to become "walking tech" by carrying around a folding keyboard, port replicator, external HDD and a wireless mouse - plus the charger. I ended up selling the Vaio to a colleague for $50.