I had a fantastic run with Ubuntu 9.10 on my Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo v5535 laptop, I think it lasted around about 8 months, which is fantastic considering I was re-installing operating systems on this machine nearly weekly. The problems started to occur though, not all down to Ubuntu itself, but mainly for the lack of support for the model I purchased just over a year ago.
Graphics
So the SiS Mirage 3+ IGP works to an extent, I have full 2D support and can have my display extended to the native 1280×800. I’m a happy bunny, but you always want your hardware to perform as well as it can. Having fully enabled Aero on Windows 7 and not being able to even enable moderate effects in Ubuntu is just wrong, of course this is the fault of SiS and their pathetic contract with Microsoft. Did I mention that they have actually made a 3D graphics driver for Linux? Will they release the source code? No. Pointless? Absolutely.
Networking
Wireless works out-the-box, along with the ethernet port. Things go fine until you wish to switch between the ethernet cable and your wireless a few times, or maybe change wired networks to perform multiple tasks. After around 10-20 changes, the ethernet stops working altogether, it can’t establish a connection at all. I have tried reseting the network, tried different cables and networks but it just doesn’t want to play along. Therefore a complete system restart is required, waste of both time and energy.