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What Should I Do Before Saying Goodbye To Windows?

Nickolai

By Nickolai,
in Surface Pro 2

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Nickolai HSS Member

Nickolai

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I'm buying Surface Pro 2 and I'm going to wipe windows and install Ubuntu on it. (I know it may sound weird, but I'm going to give it a try)

 

1. What should I do before getting rid of Windows altogether? Things I have in mind are firmware updates that I may be only able to install from Windows. Maybe some hardware calibration?

 

2. What are the reasons, if any, to keep Windows along with Ubuntu? Again, the need to run Windows-only calibration software comes to mind.

 

Note: I will not quite wipe Windows for good; I am going to make a full disk backup first, so that I always have an option to restore it, if I need to. However, I'd like to use Ubuntu as the only operating system on my computer, for the sake of simplicity.

 

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schoondoggy HSS Genius

schoondoggy

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If it were mine:

1. Buy Windows Media Center, $10.70, and install it. Print/save a copy of the key.

2. Run Belarc Advisor to get a full inventory of everything that is on it, including license keys. Print/save a copy.

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html

3. Create a recovery drive. Most Windows 8 machines need a 32GB USB drive to make the recovery disk.

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ROZZ Advanced Member

ROZZ

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Simplicity? I hope you have some experience with Ubuntu or other Linux distros before taking this on. First you better check around if anyone else has done this before and what issues they've had. If you've never installed Ubuntu on a Windows machine and dealt with driver issues, lack of drivers for device specific hardware that never ever see the light of day ever, and other countless errors you're in for a whole lotta not-so-simple (and a ton of headaches). And if you're going to install an emulator to run Windows apps...well then that just about defeats the whole purpose of doing it in the first place.

 

But, if you've got experience with all that then by all means go for it. I had a lot of fun rejuvenating old laptops and desktops with Ubuntu. I used a dual boot Windows 7 and Ubuntu desktop for a couple years, mostly using just Ubuntu. Honestly though, I switched back to Windows because it was too much to keep up with. I wanted simple. With Windows, especially Windows 8, it's install and forget. Simple=Windows 8, Fun/Hobby=Ubuntu

 

Good luck and let us know how it works out if you go for it. I've been hoping to see someone come out with a distro for the RT. It seems chromebooks are getting all the Ubuntu love with Crubuntu or whatever its called. Would be cool to see Ubuntu breathe some more life into the RT.

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