Ubuntu Linux on a Sony Picturebook C1VFK

The Ubuntu distribution of Linux continues to amaze me. The latest version (5.04) installed directly on my old Sony Picturebook laptop. This can be a difficult installation as being a very small laptop, there is no room for an in-built CD-drive, and the screen is effectively half-size (1024 x 480). I have a plugin-in PCMCIA CD-drive for loading software, but almost all Linux distributions on CD start to boot, then discover that the PCMCIA driver they need resides on the CD which they can no longer recognise. Catch-22. Anticipating prolonged trial-and-error, I was stunned to see it boot directly, and even more remarkably, recognise the unusual display. This is amazing. Combined with the synaptic package manager for security and other updates, and hardware recognition as good as Knoppix I can thoroughly recommend this distribution. Having run a dual boot IBM Thinkpad for a year (Windows and Linux), I am now moving over completely to Linux with the lightweight Sony ideal for travelling. Even my wireless card was recognised. Running gVim and Lyx for text, Sylpheed 2.0 as mail client and Opera and Firefox as browsers. Wordpress runs locally using XAMPP to provide MySQL, Apache and PHP. LifeRea is the feed reader. There is some satisfaction in keeping an old friend going!