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Re: Which Linux distro?

 

Thanks for the advice! The distros I was thinking about were Mandriva, OpenSuSE, Fedora, Kubuntu, and Debian. I assume by your response that I would have equal luck with the other 3?

-Tristan


On 3/25/2011 7:28 PM, Sylvain P. wrote:
Hello Tristan,

It is not so much a distro issue per see, but it is a kernel issue. The hardware on the sony vaio z13 serie is relatively well supported (in a basic way: to allow you to be productive on your laptop, I am not talking about switching graphic cards) by recent kernel such as 2.6.38 which was officially release some weeks ago. As you can imagine, no (or few) distribution has been able to release a stable version of their OS with that kernel yet.

So this is the issue: most of the current mainstream distributions are using older kernel (Ubuntu Maverick is using 2.6.35 for example), and small "tricks" are often needed to boot/install the distribution with such kernel in the first place, but as soon as you are able to install the 2.6.38 kernel, you should be fine.

Many people have managed to install Ubuntu and Fedora on their hardware with minimal fuss.

If you are not comfortable with installing custom kernels and adding parameters to grub boot loader, maybe you should simply wait for the next release of the mainstream distro (Ubuntu Natty will ship with 2.6.38, Fedora 15 too, I am not sure about the others), and most of your hardware should be supported out of the box.

If you are comfortable with tinkering with your system, then you can check our wiki on the subject for inspiration (and don't hesitate to check the method for models that are slightly different from your own), and eventualy report on your success/failure.

http://linux-on-sony-vaio-z.wikispaces.com/
http://linux-on-sony-vaio-z.wikispaces.com/VPCZ135GG

Warm regards,

Sylvain


2011/3/25 Tristan Muntsinger <kachikosbodkin@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:kachikosbodkin@xxxxxxxxx>>

    I just recently got my Sony Vaio Z13 and I'm looking to put Linux
    on it.  I'm not too picky about the distro, as long as I get to
    run KDE.  I'm just looking for one that runs WELL on the Vaio Z.
     It seems like most people have a terrible time getting any distro
    to work on it, so I'm asking if anybody out there has actually
    gotten one to fully work well (and which distro it is).

    Thanks!

    -Tristan

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