The form-factor is great; Sony's implementation isn't. The keyboard is poor, the trackpoint not very responsive or accurate. (And I like Trackpoints!)
Mine is maxed out with 2GB of RAM and a dual-core Atom, and Intel Poulsbo GPU (GMA500). The author of this piece is running the screen at way below its true res of 1600x768. Not a typo: it's a high-DPI letterbox ultra-widescreen.
It came with Win10. It was unusable; 10-15min to boot and log in.
I tried Xubuntu $CURRENT then – maybe 18.04. Very poor; ~8min to boot and login.
It just about manages to run Windows 7 ThinPC, the "thin client" version of Win7. It works but it's not responsive. I am considering downgrading to TinyXP.
I have tried multiple Linuxes:
• Xubuntu (too heavy: used lots of RAM at idle, very slow)
• Devuan + Xfce (usable, took 250-300MB RAM, a bit sluggish)
• Crunchbang++ (worked, responsive, but surprising memory footprint of over 200MB)
• MX Linux (worked fairly well, looked weird, felt clunky; adjusted screen DPI & it broke the desktop cosmetically: text didn't fit inside buttons, etc.)
Currently it runs Raspberry Pi Desktop, x86 edition. This is surprisingly good. It idles at a bit under 200MB of RAM, LXDE (now PIXEL) works well and supports a vertical taskbar that works well. Screen DPI can be scaled. Quite snappy.
I tried installing Xfce and it substantially increased RAM usage, to circa 350MB — nearly double. This was an unpleasant surprise: the RasPi folks have cut Debian down hard and I am impressed.
I am playing with antiX in VBox as I type this (no, not on the Vaio P) and it's weird but it does work well, and it's idling, after a full update, at an amazing 106MB of RAM. I may try this on the Vaio.
I wish I could get the Vaio's GPU working but no modern Linux can run the ancient Pouslbo drivers.
The form-factor is great; Sony's implementation isn't. The keyboard is poor, the trackpoint not very responsive or accurate. (And I like Trackpoints!)
Mine is maxed out with 2GB of RAM and a dual-core Atom, and Intel Poulsbo GPU (GMA500). The author of this piece is running the screen at way below its true res of 1600x768. Not a typo: it's a high-DPI letterbox ultra-widescreen.
It came with Win10. It was unusable; 10-15min to boot and log in.
I tried Xubuntu $CURRENT then – maybe 18.04. Very poor; ~8min to boot and login.
It just about manages to run Windows 7 ThinPC, the "thin client" version of Win7. It works but it's not responsive. I am considering downgrading to TinyXP.
I have tried multiple Linuxes:
• Xubuntu (too heavy: used lots of RAM at idle, very slow)
• Devuan + Xfce (usable, took 250-300MB RAM, a bit sluggish)
• Crunchbang++ (worked, responsive, but surprising memory footprint of over 200MB)
• MX Linux (worked fairly well, looked weird, felt clunky; adjusted screen DPI & it broke the desktop cosmetically: text didn't fit inside buttons, etc.)
Currently it runs Raspberry Pi Desktop, x86 edition. This is surprisingly good. It idles at a bit under 200MB of RAM, LXDE (now PIXEL) works well and supports a vertical taskbar that works well. Screen DPI can be scaled. Quite snappy.
I tried installing Xfce and it substantially increased RAM usage, to circa 350MB — nearly double. This was an unpleasant surprise: the RasPi folks have cut Debian down hard and I am impressed.
I am playing with antiX in VBox as I type this (no, not on the Vaio P) and it's weird but it does work well, and it's idling, after a full update, at an amazing 106MB of RAM. I may try this on the Vaio.
I wish I could get the Vaio's GPU working but no modern Linux can run the ancient Pouslbo drivers.