Linux Laptops ?

[n2ize]

Well I can't fathom why anyone would deliberately load Windows 8 on a laptop.

Going back - What I was trying to find out is if I can load Linux onto a laptop that came with Windows 8.

i.e. to replace windows with linux

I don't see any reason why you should have a problem, particularly if you are dumping windows and replacing it with Linux.

Now, tomorrow I am going to attempt the "impossible"... that moment everyone fears... I am going to attempt to install Linux (Fedora 19) onto a UEFI laptop with Windows 8 pre-installed by the OEM (Dell) such that the system will easily and flawlessly dual boot into Windows or Linux via GRUB (or other boot loader) such that the user does not have to change BIOS settings or anything prior to loading either OS at boot time.

To Be ? Or, not to be ? That is the Question !!

[N8OBM]

And here's my first potentially dumb Linux Newb questions:

I see that there are some web shops that sell pre-configured Linux computers. For example, System 76 and there are several others.

What is the advantage to buying one of those versus installing Linux on an OEM WIndows computer?

It doesn't seem like they cost that much less (i.e. free OS versus $Win) than an OEM Windows computer with the same hardware configuration.

I don't know if anybody has answered your question yet but the advantage is all the hardware is supported and configured for linux. Not all hardware makers make the specification of there hardware available and its not always possible to reverse engineer it. Motu audiowire cards (PCI324 and PCI424) are just one example. Adaptec has a bunch of SCSI cards that there is not linux support for. Sometimes linux installs without a hitch, other times you have to fuss with it to make it work. Sometimes it nice just to hit the power button and go.

Archie

BTW I've been playing with linux for the past 10 years or so. I like it and it just keeps getting better.

[n2ize]

I don't know if anybody has answered your question yet but the advantage is all the hardware is supported and configured for linux. Not all hardware makers make the specification of there hardware available and its not always possible to reverse engineer it. Motu audiowire cards (PCI324 and PCI424) are just one example. Adaptec has a bunch of SCSI cards that there is not linux support for. Sometimes linux installs without a hitch, other times you have to fuss with it to make it work. Sometimes it nice just to hit the power button and go.

Archie

BTW I've been playing with linux for the past 10 years or so. I like it and it just keeps getting better.

The latest Fedora distributions seem to be working better than ever right out of the box. In the old days the odds were good that after a new install or upgrade some of my hardware would not be working, usually a sound card or a wireless device, or a video card. In some cases to fix it I had to install special drivers, and if I couldn't find one I would have to replace the hardware with something that is supported. However, usually I would find a driver or a kernel patch that would fix the problem. Sometimes this involved me having to patch the kernel and recompile the entire kernel. Other times I had to manually edit the driver source code and compile is into a module that could be inserted into the running kernel.

These days I am running into these issues less and less. I recently installed Fedora 16 on a 64 bit dual core Dell Desktop and it worked flawlessly, right out of the box with no need to do anything. And just last week I installed Fedora 19 on a brand new Dell laptop and it worked flawlessly, all the hardware, i.e video, sound, wireless, camera, etc. worked perfectly,

I did have a bit of an issue with the new UEFI secure boot system that the OEM laptop comes configured to boot Windows 8 in secure UEFI mode. To install Linux I had to disable UEFI/Secure mode but then I couldn't get into Windows anymore. I had to beg Dell to send me the Windows 8 reinstallation disks, reformat the drive and re-install Windows and Linux in Legacy/BIOS mode in order to get a working dual boot system. This is a problem primarily with new systems with OEM Windows pre-installed in which you want to build a dual boot system. Since most free Linux distro's are not signed with the Microsoft key they won't boot in secure mode. There are work-arounds but they are sketchy, confusing, and not well documented yet. In my case the easiest way around the issue was just to reformat and re-install everything in Legacy/BIOS mode.. If you are not interested in a dual boot system you don;t have to worry. Just turn off secure mode and your good to go. Or get a copy of RHEL which is signed.