The hardware:
Sony VAIO PCG F305 laptop (UK version). Pentium II 366MHz, 64MB (expandable to 192MB), 256KB L2 cache, 6.4Gig disk, 14" TFT XGA screen / NoeMagic Magic Media 256 AV (2.5MB, upto 24bit), Sony MPEG2 decoder plus DVD playback software, builtin mic, stereo speakers, i.LINK (IEEE 1394 firewire), IrDA, USB, serial+ parallel ports, PCMCIA (2 x type II or 1 x type III), VGA conn out, audio in/out, 56K PCcard modem.
Disk partitioning:
The machine's 6.4 Gig is pre-partitioned as /dev/hda (4.3 gig FAT32, C:), /dev/hdb (2.0 gig FAT32, D:). D: drive is empty, so it's a simple matter to delete this and create upto 3 primary partitions outside Windows. First go into Windows and use the appropriate drive configuration utility to delete D: from its view of the world (not sure this is needed)
I opted to leave the 4.3 gig partition as is, and have 1 gig each for Linux and FreeBSD (which can both read FAT filesystems anyway??). I created one partition for FreeBSD (which has its own sub-partitioning mechanism), and the remaining two partitions were Linux / and Linux swap
The version of Linux:
Redhat 6.0 publishers edition (single CD). Kernel 2.???
Installing Redhat:
Remarkably smooth - the DVD/CDrom is bootable, so just go through the screens. The pointing device is ALPS, port PS/2. The video card is NeoMagic, and monitor seems to have to be set to high freq SVGA, although there are configurations for the Sony displays, I didn't know the type at the time.
The version of FreeBSD:
FreeBSD 3.3, Oct 99 (Walnut Creek)
Installing FreeBSD:
Again the bootable CD makes it easy, although I think I had trouble the first time and used boot floppies. pointer/video devices same as Linux.