So, I had an old Sony Vaio FX-101 laptop and wanted to change it's operating system. I had nearly run out of hard disk space and wasn't using the laptop at all.All I wanted to be able to do was use the word processor and (safely) surf the Internet. Linux was the answer...
First, there were several attempts to try running different version of Linux from the live CD's. It didn't work. The laptop must have been switched on and off quite a lot of times. Then can the forum search. Once we had checked a particular option (I don't remember what), the CD's booted!
Some options looked nice, but seemed slow. I settled for Xubuntu. It's Ubuntu with an Xfce thing instead of Gnome. I don't really understand, it's all rather technical.
Anyway, it has all software that you would need added in: Firefox, Abiword and Gnumeric (Web, Word and Excel). Other apps/functions can be added, but I've got all I need. I have also freed up 6.9Gb of hard disk space.
It boots quickly and programs load relatively well. I can't expected it to run more than 2 apps at a time... Clearly, the RAM is at max capacity most of the time!
Overall, I'm pleased. It should give life to an 8 year old laptop by putting a modern OS into creaky hardware.
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