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My father has given me a Sony VAIO VGN-Z21WN laptop. It has an Intel Centrino 2 (Duo) 2.53 Ghz processor and 3Gb of RAM. I have installed Ubuntu 10.04 on a Dell Latitude before and despite having difficulties getting the wireless driver to work (initially), it did end up being a fairly straight-fordward installation.

I would like whichever version of Ubuntu to work well on this Sony VAIO so I am wondering:

  1. Which version of Ubuntu should I install for a mostly trouble-free installation and usage?

  2. Are there any issues I should be aware of before I proceed with the installation.

  3. As I have had compatibility issues with formatting when using OpenOffice in the past, I might like to use Microsoft Office in the future (e.g. Excel and Word). Would it therefore be possible to partition the hard drive and install Windows XP on one partition, and Ubuntu on the other? If so, will this be difficult to achieve?

  4. Will this Sony VAIO laptop be compatible with a 64-bit installation and Operating System?

Many thanks for your input.

1 Answer 1

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I'll give my own experience:

1) I'm pretty sure the installation is equally trouble-free for all *ubuntu (ubuntu, xubuntu, kubuntu, etc.).

2) Maybe to be aware about the partitioning procedure, as you are asking to have a dual boot with Windows.

3) As mentioned in 2), you can have dual boot. You should look for tutorials on doing this (it's full of them...). I'd recommend to install win xp first, and then ubuntu. That's because of GRUB as a loader with which you can select the OS to boot (ubuntu, win xp). But if you first install ubuntu and then win, the win boot will re-write the MBR and GRUB will be erased. In consecuence, you won't be able to boot in ubuntu unless you repair GRUB... it's kind of messy.

4) I'm not sure, sorry I can't help with this one.

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  • Hi Pabloz, thank you for answering my question. I have done some research regarding a dual boot. If I have understood your comments above, I should first partition the hard drive and install Windows XP on one of the partitions. I should then install Ubuntu on the other partition. I am wondering if I should therefore commence with the Windows XP installation disc (which I have) or I can do this all using the Ubuntu installation disc (which I have just burnt onto a DVD). Thanks,
    – user220638
    May 30, 2014 at 16:39
  • Nope, you will first have to install win xp with its installation disc (you select the partition where you want it). After it's finished, then you can continue to install ubuntu in the other partitions (minimum two: one for / and another for linux-swap).
    – Pabloz
    May 30, 2014 at 16:50
  • ah ha - gotcha. That makes sense. I will also use the 32-bit installer for Ubuntu 14.04 LTS as it it appears the processor has the x86 architecture. When I make the partition using the Windows XP installer, do I choose NTFS or Fat 16 or Fat 32? I would like the most user friendly format. Thanks
    – user220638
    May 30, 2014 at 19:19
  • I would choose NTFS, since ubuntu 14.04 can read/write in that kind of partition.
    – Pabloz
    May 31, 2014 at 2:41

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