Re: VAIO

[Francois BOTTIN <fbottin@yahoo.com>]

--- "J.R. Blain" <cowboy@clockmedia.com> wrote:
> We are looking at purchasing a few laptops for the office, and are
> considering Sony VAIO's.  Does anyone have any experience with them
> running debian?  Potential problems?  Suggestions on models/addons?
> 

I bought a VAIO 807 a few months ago (PIII 650/500 speedstep, 64MB RAM
updated to 192, 12GB hard drive, 14.1' 1024x768x16 display, DVD player...)

The only problem I have with it is the Windows 2K Pro licence, and I
havn't received my money back yet (Sony France doesn't seem to hear my
complaints) :-(

I did not test the internal modem nor the i-link port (firewire) since I
have no use of them. The rest is running perfectly well with Debian 2.2
(revisions 0, 2 and 3 tested) and Alsa 0.5.10 for the sound card (it's a
Yamaha YMF744, Alsa module is ymfpci). The USB ports are supported (tested
with a Logitech optical mouse and MS SS80 sound card).

The display is really comfortable and it scales itself automagically to
use the whole surface whichever the resolution is. Then you don't end up
with a console the size of a stamp in the center of the screen.

If you choose this model, I suggest you extend the RAM size. 64MB is
really too short and it makes a real difference while playing a DVD. Also
do not forget to disable the "PNP OS" BIOS feature if you want to use the
sound card...

You can contact me directly for further info.

    Francois.

=====
Francois BOTTIN
--
    "How kind," the PFY sighs. "But where will I go?" 
    "Somewhere where they know nothing about computing...
where they wouldn't know a RAM chip from a potato chip!" 
    "But I don't want to visit Microsoft!" he whines.
              The BOFH 1998 - Simon Travaglia (bofh.ntk.net)

__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Auctions - buy the things you want at great prices
http://auctions.yahoo.com/