Sunday 24 June 2007

Mandriva 2007 Spring on a Sony Vaio S4XP


Specifications



Model Name: Sony VGN S4XP (Released early 2005) Processor: 2GHz Intel Centrino (Cache Memory 2MB) 533 MHz Front Side Bus, RAM: 1GB DDR2-400, Hard Disc:100GB SATA, Optical drive: DVD-RW/DL, Display: 1280x800 X-Black13.3 Inches LCD WXGA,Graphics Card: NVIDIA Geforce Go 6200 with Turbocache supporting up to 128MB, Wireless capabilities: WLAN/Bluetooth, Interfaces: SVGA, x1 PCMCIA, x2 USB 2.0, x1 Firewire, Memory Stick slot, Ethernet, 56kpbs Modem.



Installation Summary



As with the installation of SuSE 10.1, installing Mandriva 2007 was frightfully simple. All devices worked with the sole exception of the wireless functionality of the Centrino. This can be fixed by a software download or a inexpensive Linux compatible PC card wireless adapter.

For those who have video files in MP4, AVI and WMV, they playback in Mandriva 2007 Spring out of the box! My main annoyance with Ubuntu 6.06, which I love, was its inability to handle video formats and MP3. Mandriva 2007 Spring in this regard is a refreshing alternative.


AJ