Sony Z series

I searched the forum but it's hard to find sony models since they're only 1 letter.

Do any of you know how well Linux (specifically (k)ubuntu) plays with the sony Z series laptop? I have a Sony TZ and it works great. But I'm wondering how the turboboost/graphics card switching works (if at all). I don't care about the graphics or the turboboost per se, I just don't want it to always be on and destroying my battery.

(I haven't bought one yet, I'm looking for what to get)

 

Here's the Linux Laptop Wiki page for the TZ, which linked to this thread over at the Ubuntu User forums, which will probably be your best source of information. Finally, there's also this thread, which is a bit more technical, over at the Arch Linux Users forum, which may contain some useful information.

Good Luck..

 

I may have been unclear. I HAVE the TZ model and it plays very nice with linux. I'm thinking about getting a Z series (the 13.1 inch screen), and I'm wondering how it will work.

Edit:

The article on the Z at linlap is old and refers to the C2D version of the Z.

 

Sorry my mistake. You're right. While there's good information available for Linux on the Sony Vaio Z21;

Linux Laptop Wiki
Ubuntu Sony Z Wiki
Sony Vaio Z21VN/X - OpenSuse 11.1 - Install Howto

there's very little available for the Sony Vaio VPCZ1190X.

However, the hardware differences could be small enough that the same configuration methods will apply to both models. For example, I have the same kernel config that I share between two different Asus laptops, one is a C2D, and the other an i7. The only tricky bit, is if Sony significantly changed the dual GPU hardware and/or implementation on the newer Z.

It's sometimes useful to read through the existing information, for possible indications of support for the newer model, or for some of the links that the pages above provide. For example, there's an Ubuntu launchpad Sony Vaio Z team webpage here, which among other things, maintains a large email list of people, some of whom may be able to answer these questions for you. You could also consider posting the question on the Ubuntu User forums directly, but so far for those who have, noone with direct experience has responded.

Finally, if anyone here has direct hands on knowledge of the new Z and Linux, I would expect them to add their experience to this thread.

Good Luck..

 

Thanks for the info. It looks like there's no obvious problems (I assume I would have found threads trying to fix specific issues) so I probably shouldn't be too worried. Sonys seem to work fairly well with linux in general as per my experience.