[PeteT]

It should run Ubuntu fine (Ubuntu is no more a resource hog than Vista). The laptop has a decent processor (but 2.0GHz rather than the 2.4GHZ of the Macbook), plenty of RAM, and good reviews. The only downside is the graphics card - not the greatest, but fine for business apps and movies, no good if you want to play the latest 3D games, and it won't be much help to the Photoshop plugins which can use the 3d card to assist processing, but you wouldn't expect to be able to do that at this price point anyway.

Macbook vs the Sony - that sounds to me like a heart vs head decision !!!!