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In terms of support, I'm curious what is it about Sony's support for older models that you find a problem? Repair? Parts? Driver updates?

Parts mostly. Things like new batteries, plugs, accessories etc.
I tend to run Linux, so drivers are not here nor there...


Sony really ticks me off with their price gouging on accessories. $250 for a battery! $100 for an AC adapter! It's a big reason why I won't buy Sony laptops.

And they make other customer unfriendly choices. My friend has a nice Centrino class Sony laptop he bought about 18 months ago. In most ways the machine is still up to date and there isn't a reason to upgrade. But he would like to change the 802.11b to Intel's 802.11b/g chip. Nope. It's soldered on the motherboard instead of being mini-pci card. He also tried to upgrade the hard drive and OMG was that an ordeal. Many vendors (Dell, Compaq) put their hard drives behind easily accessible panels. Sony buries it in the machine and the reassembly is nearly impossible because of a very fragile ribbon connector that must be reattached. He broke it and Sony wanted something like $100 to just look at the machine before they would even give him a price for the repair. And Sony wouldn't send him just the part. He had to spend way too much time tracking this part down from a local service center. What would have been a 5 minute job on a Dell cost many, many hours of time and 2 weeks of not having a working laptop.

Unfortunately, Sony has brought their planned obsolescence model from consumer electronics to computers.