I still use a 2008 model at the kitchen table to read the local online newspaper and such. I bought it used, it runs Win 10 but can be slow at times, but I don't care if it gets ruined from kitchen table abuse.
I used to mine bitcoin on my VPCEC right after GPU support was available. I had bought it specifically to have a portable 1080p screen while in college for CS. Until just a few months ago, it was my Plex server. (It still works)
The VPCSB [0] had a switch at the top that could manually switch between integrated graphics for better battery, or discrete graphics for better performance. It always felt cool turning it on before gaming.
Wow, that is pretty cool. I had never heard of a laptop with a switch for discrete graphics before. Sony definitely had some neat features in the VAIO line.
I've inherited several VAIO models over the time from my father who liked them very well.
There was always something annoyingly non standard about them and it showed on Linux. One needed a daemon to make its fans shut up, vaiofand. One had an Optimus-like setup but not really Optimus which fortunately Bumblebee handled not too badly, and a "stamina - speed" button that didn't work AFAIK.
Opening one of those laptops and finding out what was where was a mess.
They worked well enough though. Except for their fans, which were annoyingly loud and had a high-pitched sound, and where pretty much always spinning on Windows, which made my father's room loud.
Maybe it's not a bad thing they stopped making laptops. HP, Dell and Lenovo do much better laptops I think. I have the feeling Vaios were expensive laptops with caveats.
Now, I recently sold a Vaio laptop from 2004. Apparently vaiofand might not be needed anymore on it. Except for the battery it was still working very well and had a really good screen for the time. 1400x900 glossy 17 inch. It was a 4kg beast.
I had the Sony TR5, which is probably my favorite laptop of all time. It was really great for its time, super portable and very useful. I really miss it, considering how heavy my Macbook pro is compared to it.
Got a big ole dual core VAIO, then toward the end of my CS degree, got a VPCZ1. Great machine. Still used as my backup travel/admining stuff box. Biggest problem I had was I did mulch one of the connectors for one of the FPC ribbons in it, and still absolutely hate that Nvidia 630 M with a damned passion.
The keyboard has been behaving wonkily, so I have a couple of keys soft remapped, but it still does what I ask it to. No regrets.
I remember my 11" VGN-TZ with some fondness. At the time, the 2.5lb weight and pretty good battery life were a huge improvement over the 6lb 15" Toshiba I had been lugging around. That said, by 2014 I was happy to get rid of it for $100 in a Craigslist sale.
I remember saving up for and spending money on a VAIO in the very late 90's or early 2000's and being bitterly disappointed. It looked OK from the outside but was horribly underpowered on the inside. Stunning amounts of cost cutting as well; I don't think I've known any other laptop with only 4 copper pins on the 100mbit ethernet port.
I remember keeping an eye on the VAIO PCG-505 as I was really into ultrabooks at the time. At first when I saw the picture I thought I might have owned one (memory's a bit fuzzy). I did have a Toshiba 320CT and 3110CT which were great machines too. It wasn't until the ThinkPad x-series or MacBook Air that we had these again.
