Ubuntu or Windows 8

[sagemaster210v2]

Im currently using Ubuntu 13.10 on an external drive to test it, and im loving it! I am also thinking about installkng Ubuntu to my actually laptop to i can update everything and have full use of it, but im running Windows 8 on my laptop, and I was wondering if i should replace w8 woth ubuntu, and if so which version (12.04 lts or 13.10) and reasons why i should.

[Dreamer Fithp Apprentice]

Im currently using Ubuntu 13.10 on an external drive . . . and . . . am also thinking about installkng Ubuntu to my actually laptop to i can update everything and have full use of it

If you mean an external hard drive you CAN update it and get full use of it as it is. The only difference should be speed as typically internal drives are faster since they don't have to go through the usb interface. Or at least that's my understanding.

I was wondering if i should replace w8 woth ubuntu

No "should" involved really. Purely a matter of preference. If it were me, if I had the drive space, I'd shrink some partition on the drive with gparted or something similar, create a new partition large enough for ubuntu (say at least 5 gb, you can look it up for a more exact figure; 20 if you have scads of drive space), partition it ext3, and install ubuntu to it and dual boot.

which version (12.04 lts or 13.10) and reasons why i should.

Good question, but the choice isn't crucial. In principle the LTS should require less frequent and less extensive updates once it's updated the first time (because they've already had plenty of time to fix it up) so the updating won't take as much of your time or bandwidth. So it should be, in an overused word, more stable. Saucy will have some applications that have had bugs fixed upstream that aren't readily available to the LTS and may break it if you trick it into installing them anyway. I'm dual booting both atm and tinkering with both, optimising them for different things. If and when I'm satisfied with my tweaking of the Precise system I"ll probably back it up as is and try upgrading it to the latest version. Thunar and Pcmanfm both work appreciably better in the later versions available to Saucy than in the earlier versions that are the newest in the Precise repos. Offhand I can't think of any other differences I've noticed.

[oldfred]

I would not un-install Windows 8, but use Windows 8 disk tools to shrink it. To keep it functional you do need at least 30% free space inside the NTFS partition. When it gets too full it gets very slow. Also with Windows 8 you must turn fast boot or the always on hibernation off.
Since it is Windows 8, you will have UEFI with secure boot. Often best to turn off secure boot.
Ubuntu will have two entries in UEFI menu, one BIOS/CSM/Legacy & the other UEFI.
If secure boot is on, it should only show the secure boot UEFI entry.
Shows install with screen shots for both BIOS & UEFI, so you know which you are using.
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI

UEFI is relatively new, secure boot is very new and Microsoft, vendors & Ubuntu are regularly updating. I might suggest 13.10 and then upgrade to 14.04 when it comes out. The current 12.04.3 is not as current on UEFI but will be updated with the 12.04.4 update in Jan. If very new Haswell system you may have to use 13.10 as Intel added updates to kernel, video and other support systems to support Haswell or 4th gen chips.

Also check that you have vendor's latest UEFI/BIOS version.
Lots of info in link in my signature.

[sagemaster210v2]

Okay, thanks for the reply. Oh and i apologize for my misspellings. Anyway, what I meant by replace, is if i should just disregard windows 8, and use the entire drive to install ubuntu?

[sagemaster210v2]

Thanks oldfred, but I recently acquired my laptop from my Uncle, and he did not include the windows 8 disc, so I can't change the size of the partition, which is why i asked if i should just install Ubuntu to my laptop and disregard the fact that windows 8 exsists on my laptop.

[sagemaster210v2]

Oh, and when I said i don't have full use, i meant like accessing my video drivers, and so on. For some odd reason, since i'm running off of an external usb harddrive, i can't update my video card from it, and when i try to on windows 8, which i have forgotten the admin password for (don't question it), it asks for the admin pass in order to update it. Also applications like steam, that have built in video card updaters (not sure if thats a word) can't read/search for an update since its not actually on my laptop. Another thing is that i can't use flash drives (usb) because Ubuntu is not actually on my laptop.

[Mark Phelps]

so I can't change the size of the partition,

Of course, you can! Simply use the Disk Management utility already built into Windows to shrink down the size of the OS partition.

[oldfred]

XP was the last version that vendors offered disks for reinstall.
Now you get an image, which is not a full Windows installer like you would purchase, but an image of the installed version you have. You also can make a backup of the image to DVDs which is a good idea.
But you should also make full back ups of Windows.
We have users who want to fully install Ubuntu, but then have that one application or game that only runs in Windows. So they want Windows back. It took me years to totally wean my self off that one application.

[Sef]

Is your computer under warranty? If so, by installing Ubuntu, you could void the warranty. Have you thought about installing it virtually?

[DuckHook]

...It took me years to totally wean my self off that one application.

I'm still not weaned. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri will only run properly from Windows. Have never been able to get it running well using WINE. That is the main reason I've still got Windows on my machine.

You reach an age where you don't want to wean yourself off the things that give you pleasure. Regression, I suppose.

@OP It's always good to have choices and a fallback strategy. W8 may end up being completely disposable. But it's nice to be in the position where you are in control and get to choose when you can ditch it to reclaim the disk space.