I've owned two Viaos and dearly loved them both. However your not the first I've heard make this statement. Does everyone dislike them BECAUSE they're Sony or are people having actual issues with them?

From my experience, their support is very weak (and support costs in an organization frequently outstrip the purchase costs), and they tend to change parts specs way too fast. They all say "specifications subject to change without notice" - Sony means it. We like to use disk images to rebuild computers, but we can't, even with supposedly identical Sonys (Sonies? Whatever. Don't hit me, Bitt.), because the parts (and respective drivers/settings) have changed. I only had that happen once with HP Omnibooks, never with Compaq Armadas. IBM Thinkpads frequently will use the same image across several models within a "series".

-jk