[SOLVED] Vista to Ubuntu

[zx6r1033]

I am amazed that this hasn't been posted before, so I get the funny feeling I should explain why I am asking rather than just leaving it at the question. That way I won't seem quite so unintelligent when the answers start coming in. 8-[

I am about to order a new laptop which will have Vista preinstalled. I have emailed HP about sending the laptop without any OS at all, but the answer came back "Definitely not."

A month or two back, a friend of mine bought a new laptop with Vista. He also bought a copy of XP Professional. I remember the brick wall he hit while trying to wipe the HD and install XP instead... the articles referred to some sort of problem with Vistas format system and erasing it.

So my question is this... How rough of a ride am I in for with trying to ditch Vista and install Ubuntu?

[tamoneya]

there have been a couple people recently who have just rejected the vista EULA when they get the laptop. Then the call up HP and got a refund:http://gizmodo.com/5027302/how-to-get-refunded-on-prepackaged-vista

[zx6r1033]

That is awesome! that is something I hadn't heard about yet. Still... how hard is it to uninstall vista?

[meindian523]

As soon as you refuse the EULA,you can do whatever you want with the preinstalled Vista(except using it :-P)Operating Systems are uninstalled by deleting their partitions.

[Muflon]

Hi zx6r1033

You have probably considered this but a better option may be to dual boot and then you get the best of both worlds. This is what I did with my Dell laptop with Vista pre-installed. I don't use Vista that often but I have a couple of applications that only run under Windows (Tom Tom Home being one) and it is useful to have Vista in the toolbox if required.

Muflon

[zx6r1033]

Hi zx6r1033

You have probably considered this but a better option may be to dual boot and then you get the best of both worlds. This is what I did with my Dell laptop with Vista pre-installed. I don't use Vista that often but I have a couple of applications that only run under Windows (Tom Tom Home being one) and it is useful to have Vista in the toolbox if required.

Muflon


I have definitely considered this. There are two things that push me more toward a clean install, though. First, in my (admittedly limited) experience with Vista, I don't like it. I already have XP Home Slipstream/light that I could use as a dual boot if I chose that route. Second... my new laptop will be my primary laptop, but definitely not my only option. We currently have 8 computers in our house. 3 are laptops. If I run into something I need windows for, I can always turn to one of the systems that still has it.

That being said... I will probably hang on to the Vista disk just in case. It never hurts to have a new program in the arsenal.




As soon as you refuse the EULA,you can do whatever you want with the preinstalled Vista(except using it )Operating Systems are uninstalled by deleting their partitions.

I realize this. Is vista just like any other program when it comes to deleting the partiton, though? I was lead to believe there was something about the way they were installed that 'locked' vista from being deleted. Or is this just another one of those "It isn't possible" scare tactics?

[pmlxuser]

just to answe you question. if you want to do a complete wipe of vista with ubuntu, you don't have any problem. delete partition works so no though ride ;)

windows still remain windows , you can't replace a window with a windo but you can definately replace a window with a Tux ;)

[zx6r1033]

just to answe you question. if you want to do a complete wipe of vista with ubuntu, you don't have any problem. delete partition works so no though ride ;)

windows still remain windows , you can't replace a window with a windo but you can definately replace a window with a Tux ;)


haha Nice!

For some reason I thought the whole "It's not possible to delete Vista" thing seemed too impossible to buy in to, but it would seem like a shame to upgrade to a larger hard drive only to find out I'd have to replace it anyway.

Thanks to all!

[tamoneya]

haha Nice!

For some reason I thought the whole "It's not possible to delete Vista" thing seemed too impossible to buy in to, but it would seem like a shame to upgrade to a larger hard drive only to find out I'd have to replace it anyway.

Thanks to all!

I find it kind of funny actually that microsoft would try something like that.

[zx6r1033]

I find it kind of funny actually that microsoft would try something like that.

Yeah, but it definitely doesn't surprise me. I've forgotten what the actual statistics are, but MS is losing their hold on the OS market steadily.

Who knows... maybe Windows7 will live up to all the hype. (lol?)

[tamoneya]

Yeah, but it definitely doesn't surprise me. I've forgotten what the actual statistics are, but MS is losing their hold on the OS market steadily.

Who knows... maybe Windows7 will live up to all the hype. (lol?)

Windows 7 may live up to the hype and help microsoft to reestablish themselves in the desktop market but there is a strong trend to the low cost netbooks and such like the eeePC. Linux is dominating in this market because it runs much better with the low hardware requirements and there is no licensing fee. putting a $150 OS on a $200 piece of hardware makes no sense when you can put a free OS on that runs better. Just look at how OLPC has nosedived since they switched to XP. The thing runs like crap and is now more expensive.

[estyles]

Maybe your friend tried to install XP on top of Vista without deleting the partition? I had a lot of trouble when I "accidentally" installed XP on my computer from the CD that came with my wife's laptop, and couldn't install 2000 on top of it because it was a downgrade - XP would just say "you already have a more recent version of windows". It was a problem because I had lost my 2000 CD and just had a copy of the CD on a separate partition that wasn't bootable, and my wife didn't have a CD burner, and I couldn't use XP to burn a CD because the license had expired. Figured it out eventually.

But yeah, I don't think Windows will let you downgrade, but you can always wipe and start from scratch. No experience with Vista here, but I haven't heard anything like Vista screws up partition tables or anything.