Can I install Linux on new Laptop without first running Windows installer.

Hi everyone.
I have a small Laptop on the way and want to install Linux on it.
It comes with Windows 10 Pro.
Can I skip the Windows 10 Set-Up stage and just go on to install Linux.

If I can, how will this effect Windows if I ever do decide to run windows,
will the windows installer insist on using the disc space already taken
by Linux.

I ask because looking at a thread on here reminded me of the time
I installed Linux, and Windows update always broke Grub, and I want
to avoid this, ever since I deleted windows after installing Linux and have
no idea if Windows update still breaks Grub.
Windows! have fun detecting there is a grub. One of my first installation as I remember was first installing linux then windows in the earlier part of the disk.
Have a live Grub CD and some linux "Rescue" distros, as I remember Rescatux worked magic. Search in distrowatch.com in data rescue category. These old tools will save your A$$.
Dualboot on one hard drive. is a choice for starters then other choices offered by other fellow users. And u have the choice to test things with and old drive, then mess up with different operations and see how these things work.
 


I did the decent thing and put windows in the bin.
Everything is working fine now.
No matter how often I re arranged the boot order
only three of the options in the bios showed up for
me to boot to, although there was Six, and they showed the last three
instead of the first, so I could not select the usb drive, the only way
to get Linux to boot was to get rid of windows., which oddly enough
resulted in no boot problems, he first item on the list booted which
was not the case when windows was there.
 
I did the decent thing and put windows in the bin.
RIP
GuksxMydCVPtOBFhKrhX.gif
 
its not using swap

Swap is more complicated than, "A place where the kernel stuffs things when the RAM is low."

Here's a system with 16 GB of RAM:

Code:
free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:          15905        9753         555         838        5596        5117
Swap:          2047         952        1095

As you can see, the system is still using swap. It is my *observation* that having swap available makes for a more stable system. Even on systems with a whole lot more RAM, I keep a little swap space for when the kernel wants to page something to swap. It uses swap a lot less, but it certainly still takes advantage of it.

I don't understand the nuances well enough to explain them, but people have some weird misconceptions about what swap is - and there's a lot of myth and wive's tales involved, complete with magical incantations meant to solve your swap needs if you just know the right ones to enter.

On my list of things to do is to better understand it, to understand it well enough to explain it. But, it's not something like 'space that will act like RAM when you're running low.' It's a lot more complicated than that.
 
I think you like windows just as much as me.
Swap is more complicated than, "A place where the kernel stuffs things when the RAM is low."

Here's a system with 16 GB of RAM:

Code:
free -m
              total        used        free      shared  buff/cache   available
Mem:          15905        9753         555         838        5596        5117
Swap:          2047         952        1095

As you can see, the system is still using swap. It is my *observation* that having swap available makes for a more stable system. Even on systems with a whole lot more RAM, I keep a little swap space for when the kernel wants to page something to swap. It uses swap a lot less, but it certainly still takes advantage of it.

I don't understand the nuances well enough to explain them, but people have some weird misconceptions about what swap is - and there's a lot of myth and wive's tales involved, complete with magical incantations meant to solve your swap needs if you just know the right ones to enter.

On my list of things to do is to better understand it, to understand it well enough to explain it. But, it's not something like 'space that will act like RAM when you're running low.' It's a lot more complicated than that.
My Lubuntu install has no swap partition, and that system has only 8GB of ram, and it flys
along, people also say no swap is better for disc longevity, less writes, especially if your using
eMMC.
Lubuntu was my very first install without a swap partition, and so far it has been rock solid.
With the slower processing power I have its better for my system to read from memory.
 
people also say no swap is better for disc longevity

Oh, I don't actually care about that. Modern solid state memory is pretty robust and my replacement cycle is much faster than the MTBF. I care about system stability, especially long-term. From what I've observed, I've done no formal studies, systems with swap seem to deal better with things like being rarely rebooted.

By the way, you can add a swap file as an option during the Lubuntu installation process - should such interest you. Of course, you can add one later. At least I'm pretty sure you can. You can add a swap partition and swap manually, so I'm assuming you can do so with a swap file - I've never actually tried. I should look it up, make sure it works, and turn it into an article.
 
Oh, I don't actually care about that. Modern solid state memory is pretty robust and my replacement cycle is much faster than the MTBF. I care about system stability, especially long-term. From what I've observed, I've done no formal studies, systems with swap seem to deal better with things like being rarely rebooted.

By the way, you can add a swap file as an option during the Lubuntu installation process - should such interest you. Of course, you can add one later. At least I'm pretty sure you can. You can add a swap partition and swap manually, so I'm assuming you can do so with a swap file - I've never actually tried. I should look it up, make sure it works, and turn it into an article.
True, it would be interesting to know how to create a swap partition,
though it is easy enough with Gparted, but its telling the system where
it is and to use it.
 
Wait... I already wrote the article about making/using a swapfile. I just noticed when I checked my notes and then checked the site.


I have it backwards. I have yet to write an article about adding a swap partition.

Yeah, I've written hundreds of articles. LOL I forget which I've done and which I haven't done.
 
Hi everyone.
I have a small Laptop on the way and want to install Linux on it.
You're doing it right. Forget about the entire rest of your question. Just focus on that... Jokes aside, it'll be cumbersome. It's more worth it to run Windows 10 through a VM with hardware passthrough, which'll give you more/less native speeds for most things.

Edit: Just as a disclaimer, IDK about the finer stuff of the license (like fineprint).
 
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Xubuntu is more suitable for you in every way and it's simple and beautiful.
You can make a dual boot, but using 2 drives the same time is very convenient and makes backup really easy.
I want you to make a dual boot with a cheap used hard drive. Then see what happens.
Let's imagine you are smart and backup windows drive C with the windows backup tool. (don't remember it's name)
Then, for some reason you want to restore windows back to the fresh state with the backup you had. you shove the WIN DVD, then use the back up file and bam. Next time Grub not appearing. Windows can't touch the grub, but it's repairable. You use the live linux distros as mentioned and fix the errors.
And you can't backup the linux installation separately. It may be done but in the data rescue situation you only consider saving personal data and not the OS itself bc often there is the new version of the OS.
In the case of making backups, your only choice will be cloning your hard drive as a whole.
So, in the end you need drives for backups, bc someday your HDD will die. and so eventually you need extra drives.
Installing OS on separate HDD or SSDs is the way to go bc backup will be very easy. And there won't be all eggs in one basket.
 


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