In a few weeks time, machines with Windows 8 pre-installed will become available. Windows 8 will bring with it a few new issues related to dual-booting with Ubuntu and the staff have been having a discussion about whether and how we need to anticipate these with information useful to all, especially newcomers. The issues we have identified so far, some of which have already been seen with Windows 7 but which will become commoner with the advent of Windows 8, are as follows:
- The hybrid Windows 8 hibernate/shutdown causing loss of files saved to a shared NTFS partition from another OS. See this thread for more.
- UEFI/GPT dual-booting.
- Secure boot. Microsoft requires the ability to disable secure boot via firmware setup on non-ARM systems (page 121, #18) for hardware certification for Windows 8. In addition, Ubuntu 12.10 will work with secure boot enabled. However, is it possible that a manufacturer could release hardware non-compliant with Microsoft's certification requirement, which would cause problems with pre-12.10 Ubuntu releases?
- Samba vs Windows 7/8 homegroups.
- Refresh and Reset functions. My own experiments with the release preview show that grub and Ubuntu survive both the Windows 8 reset and refresh functions, but this was on a conventional BIOS machine with MBR partition table. I have no UEFI machine to check this with a UEFI/GPT system.
- Storage Spaces.
Comments from the forum community as a whole would be valued. Specific questions are:
- Anything we've missed?
- Any suggestions about how we could meet this need? Is there a need? A sticky with links to wiki articles perhaps? Bear in mind that we are moving away from having full-scale howtos on the forum. Useful links would be helpful (and see next item).
- UEFI booting. The Ubuntu wiki UEFI booting page would be daunting for newcomers. Does anyone know of a guide more suited for newbies?
EDIT - I'd missed that the wiki page had been edited with a link to a simpler guide a little while before I posted this post. The simpler guide is here - endedit
Or any other suggestions would be welcome.
Please note that this thread is not the place to discuss the pros and cons of secure boot, the pros and cons of any feature of Windows 8, your opinion of Microsoft, or anything else not related to how we provide an information resource about dual-booting with Windows 8. Off-topic posts will be removed.
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