New laptop. first time Linux. will multi T. Work?

H

HZQ

Guest
Hi.
this is my first laptop that I'll be putting Linux onto. I want to know if the multi-touch screen will work with the Linux interface and if I'll be able to fully overwrite the windows 8.1 that is on here already.

Help would be awesome. I don't mind stumbling through Linux when it is on there but I want to make sure I don't royally mess up my laptop in trying to override it or not be able to use the multi-touch screen.
Thanks
looking to fix it today.
 


So I've been looking around and found that yes it should work.
Next my question will be. What is the best version of linux for a new person to it and what should I do to get started with installing it and removing windows eight?
In e meantime as I've already browsed the Linux downloads options and am unsure of what version to go with ill try downgrading to windows seven.
Again any help would be awesome.
 
1. Try out a number of "live DVD" distributions first. See how they work on your hardware (multi-touch, etc). See what appeals to you the most. Some of the most popular are Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora. Note the different desktop environments: Gnome, KDE, XFCE, Unity, Mate, Cinnamon, and more... try them out.

2. Consider leaving Windows on and dual-booting with Linux. You'd need to create an empty partition to install Linux (and its usually recommeded to defrag Windows before creating the new partition). Remember to choose a UEFI friendly Linux since your Win8 system likely has that and it can somtimes be difficult to play nice with Linux.

3. If your laptop has a utility to create a "system recovery" set of Windows DVD's... that would be a good idea in case you ever want to go back. You may have a recovery partition on the hard drive as well, and I would leave that intact also since it doesn't really consume a lot of space.

4. In any case, have fun and enjoy! If you want to blow away your Windows, that's easy enough to do. But watch out for the UEFI thing... you might need to read up a bit on that before you make a full commit.

Cheers!
 
Thank you and I really do want to blow it away.
But I'm having trouble with having no DVD drive.
So I guess I'm going to have to use my USB flash drive but I'm not sure yet the exact steps I was going to take a try after I had some dinner.
I figure I'm going to try Ubuntu first.
right now I'm trying to make sure it's the only operating system and that I have it safely set up before I remove Windows.
I'll see what happens
 
Ubuntu is a good system for newbies. It has very good hardware support and is very well supported by the community. It's also UEFI friendly, so you probably won't have any trouble with that.

After you download the Ubuntu ISO file, you will need to get it on to a USB stick and make it bootable. There are a number of ways to do this, and maybe you already have a plan? A couple of the easier methods (I think) are Pen Drive Linux (http://pendrivelinux.com) and UNetbootin (http://unetbootin.sourceforge.net).

You can use these for many other distros too, and you can then use the USB stick as a "live Linux" instead of a DVD to test it out a bit if you want before installing. Or you can install straightaway. If you're overwriting the entire hard drive, it probably won't ask too many questions during the install, but there will be a few. Since you are planning to blow away your working OS, you also might want to check the MD5 sum on the ISO file to be sure it did not get corrupted during the download. That doesn't happen too often, but if you install a corrupted ISO your system may be unusable until you get a new ISO put on your USB stick and re-install. Stuff happens sometimes, as they say, but hopefully you won't have too much trouble.

Good luck!
 
It looks like I downloaded two files with errors.
But also it looks like I will not like ubuntu.
Is there a more simple linux version without many things there
somewhere for me to start adding as I please and not like the windows bundle?
 
Yes, there are simpler Linux versions, all the way down to command-line only systems. But I think that would actually be harder to learn in the beginning for a new user.

The concept of a "distribution" is to gather together a number of apps that the developers think will be useful for most people, and to assemble them into a graphical desktop. Windows does the same thing, including games, web browser, text editor, etc. The various Linux distros commonly use many of the same apps, like Brasero for disk burning, Gimp for photo editing, and LibreOffice for writing documents or creating spreadsheets. These are all very good tools, but others are also available.

This is why I suggest that you try out a number of different distributions using your USB stick to run the "live version" before you pick one to install. But once you do install to your hard drive, you can use the package manager to add new apps or to delete those you don't like. So you can trim your own Linux down to a much simpler version yourself that way.

Booting and running a live Linux on the USB stick is a little slower than when it is installed on the hard drive, but it is a great test platform for you. On some versions you can enable what is called "persistence" on your USB stick too... that lets information be saved on the USB to remain part of the system. So it will save your passwords, for example, and you won't have to enter them in every time you log in to your wireless network. It will also let you install whole programs to the USB stick too, as long as you give the "persistence" a large enough space to work with. This is very handy. You can actually make this your full time computer system and take it with you in your pocket anywhere you go... and plug it in and boot off of any physical computer you can access, a friend's, or at work, or school. However USB sticks can be prone to failure with a lot of read-write cycles, so it is good to make frequent backups of the USB to not lose anything important if a failure occurs.

Ubuntu has a new version coming out soon, but it will probably look a lot like their last one. I'm not a big fan of the Unity desktop myself, but it is a good system. I still burn new distros to DVD or USB myself and see what new changes are happening. I'm looking forward to the next release of Fedora because they are trying something differrent. That is part of the fun for me. But mostly I run the home computer on Linux Mint, with the Mate desktop environment. It has been very stable and easy to use for a long time.

Cheers!
 

Members online


Top