Linux for Sony VAIO notebook

[shinjukumaster]

Linux for Sony VAIO notebook

[shinjukumaster]

My old VAIO 505 has a PIII CPU rated at 500/650MHz (speedstep) and 256MB RAM. I think the chipset only supports 256MB memory. Hard disk is Seagate 80GB. I use it for Web browsing, FTP serving and occasionally for wordprocessing on the go. Is there a version of Linux that would give this machine a new lease on life? Ideally I'd like it to support office type apps (maybe willing to use a Linux office suite), and if possible, bi-lingual input (Japanese). Its a long time since I used Linux so I'm looking for a version/package that's fairly easy to install, and preferably a nice (but basic) desktop. This is a great little machine - its just that Windows bloat strangles it. Your input/comments much appreciated.

[Shagbag]

As you probably know there are a plethora of Linux distros out there and almost all of them now come with an automated installer.  The most popular ones appear to be:

1.  Fedora (a spin-off from Red Hat)
2.  SuSE
3.  Mandriva
4.  Ubuntu (a spin-off from Debian)

There are others, of course.

Many also come in a 'Live' version.  Live versions boot from CD and don't install themselves, ie. when you turn your PC off they disappear and you have to reboot from the CD.  The advantage is obvious - you don't have to spend hours with the automated installer before you can try them.  I'd recommend testing out a few Live distros first before you decide on which one you want to install on your Seagate.

I've installed SuSE 10.0 on my IBM Thinkpad T40.  It has an option at install to select your language (I believe Japanese is available).  It's got some Sony Vaio dedicated optimisation scripts in YaST which could prove handy to install (it offers the same 'enhancements' for the IBM Thinkpad.)

That said, Fedora Core is popular in the USA and given that most Linux textbooks come out of the US these days, they invariably use Fedora as the example distro.  So you might want to think about trying Fedora if you think you're going to need to brush up on your shell skills.

I hope this helps.