Switching to Ubuntu from Windows 8 on a Samsung Laptop

[uhhhnoakes]

Great, thanks so much! I'm installing alongside Windows 8 right now, per your directions. Thanks to everyone who has offered suggestions, I feel like I'm learning so much already! If I decide down the road to either uninstall Ubuntu or Windows, will this be possible?

[fantab]

Yes its possible. Do tell us how did it go.

[Shansie]

I cannot help with the actual changing over of your OS, I'm afraid. However, I've recently switched from Vista to Ubuntu and am keeping a blog where I keep track of the things I've learned and advice I've gotten for Ubuntu. (Otherwise, I'm bound to forget a lot of it.) It's rather small now, but if anything there is of help, feel free to browse through it! I'm also not very technically inclined, but I try. Here's the link:

http://elucidateobfuscate.tumblr.com/

I wish you luck!

[uhhhnoakes]

Install went perfectly! Everything is running smoothly and I'm now learning how to use the OS, thanks everyone for all your help! I might never log into windows again. If I were to about deleting the partitions in my drive and removing windows, what would be the best way to do this, now that I have Ubuntu installed as dual-boot?

[Impavidus]

You can simply delete the Windows partitions and update grub. The bootloader is controlled by Ubuntu already, uninstalling Windows is therefore easier than uninstalling Ubuntu. Then you can expand the Ubuntu partitions or create new Linux partitions for data or a second Linux install, if you like experimenting with Linux.

But wait for a while. You may find out there is one Windows program you can't miss yet, so it's best to keep Windows until you are really sure you're never going to need it any more or when you decide you need the disk space. Windows does no harm just sitting there on your hard disk.

[uhhhnoakes]

Ok good to know! I'm googling GRUB now.

I do not use any proprietary software and I have a desktop for itunes. My laptop is used strictly for document editing and web browsing. I found Xpad today and that has already been useful! Since I've installed Ubuntu, I've had several people ask how they could get it... Our IT guy has been encouraging us to look into Ubuntu and I think he was correct in doing so!

[fantab]

I still have Windows on its own HDD. I haven't used it in quite a while though. I kept it because I have a few games installed in Windows and they don't work well on Linux with 'playonlinux', but they work great if I run them from Windows partition with WINE.

If you want to remove Windows completely then, I'd suggest you do a clean install of Ubuntu after partitioning your HDD accordingly. Generally resizing partitons by moving them to left is not a good idea.

Install "Synaptic" Package Manager. Its better in a lot of ways to the default "Ubuntu Software Center".
To play mp3 and other proprietory formats you will have to install 'ubuntu-resticted-extras'.
To install AdobeReader, Skype etc, you will have to enable Cannonical 'Partner' repositories. You can do it from Software center or Synaptic... it will be under edit in Software Center or settings under Synaptic.

After changing your repository, from Terminal you have to run:

sudo apt-get update

ubuntu-tweak is a good tool for beginners to have, you can install it with:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:tualatrix/ppa 
sudo apt-get update 
sudo apt-get install ubuntu-tweak

The information in the following links is a MUST to understand Ubuntu:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/RootSudo
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Glossary
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/CommandLineResources

Good Luck...

[uhhhnoakes]

Model: ATA WDC WD7500BPVT-3 (scsi)Disk /dev/sda: 750GB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: gpt


Number  Start   End    Size    File system  Name                          Flags
 1      1049kB  524MB  523MB   ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, diag
 2      524MB   839MB  315MB   fat32        EFI system partition          boot
 3      839MB   973MB  134MB                Microsoft reserved partition  msftres
 4      973MB   675GB  674GB   ntfs         Basic data partition
 7      675GB   721GB  46.1GB  ext4
 8      721GB   727GB  6323MB
 5      727GB   749GB  22.1GB  ntfs         Basic data partition          hidden, diag
 6      749GB   750GB  1074MB  fat32        Basic data partition          hidden, diag




Model: Linux device-mapper (crypt) (dm)
Disk /dev/mapper/cryptswap1: 6323MB
Sector size (logical/physical): 512B/4096B
Partition Table: loop


Number  Start  End     Size    File system     Flags
 1      0.00B  6323MB  6323MB  linux-swap(v1)

This is what I see in GParted... from what I understand, I want to delete all but the ext4?

GPartedScreenshot.jpg

[uhhhnoakes]

http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.p...2#post12523182

I just came across this post and saw that sometimes I may need to boot into Windows 8 for certain applications? If I were to shrink the partition down to 20 gigs or so, would that be sufficient? I only have a couple pictures and a program or two saved in Windows 8; should I do a restore of Windows then shrink the drive in the Disk Management tool? Thanks for helping me out here

[fantab]

If you had disabled 'Secure Boot' then that post is not relavant. Windows needs atleast 25% of free space in C: to run at optimum speed. Anything less than that will affect windows performance. You can shrink /dev/sda4 to about 100GB and use the rest of the space for DATA. Yes it is best if you shrink that partition from Windows only.

Ext4 is the partition where you installed Ubuntu.... also you have not created a SWAP partition, I don't see it. Its ok for now.

My suggestion: run Ubuntu for a month or so without changing anything, once you are comfortable with it you can remove Windows and reinstall Ubuntu after partitioning your HDD properly. Right now it is messy. It will get more messier as create more partitions. It won't affect the performance in anyway but....