General Linux install question

[tinpanalley]

I have an aging Windows laptop. It has, naturally, its Windows license attached to it. I'm thinking I'll probably get a smoother experience if it's just Linux on there instead of the current setup of running Linux virtuall over Windows. If I wipe everything on the laptop and install Linux fresh but ever want to return to Windows, will a fresh Windows install of the same flavour (Pro 10) always recognise the machine and let me reactivate the license? Or does wiping for Linux effectively make Microsoft forget it was ever a Windows machine?

 

[crashtech]

Your Windows 10 license is activated by the presence of your particular hardware combo and should remain good if you wish to return to it.

 

[tinpanalley]

Your Windows 10 license is activated by the presence of your particular hardware combo and should remain good if you wish to return to it.

Ok, but it's not a given that a Linux OS will be faster just by virtue of being Linux, right? Some of the distros are actually quite memory intensive as well I understand. I like Zorin from what I've seen.

 

[mikeymikec]

Ok, but it's not a given that a Linux OS will be faster just by virtue of being Linux, right? Some of the distros are actually quite memory intensive as well I understand. I like Zorin from what I've seen.

You haven't given much in the way of specifics (like what this ageing laptop is), though one thing I will say for my experience with Linux so far is that I've never seen it inexplicably start consuming tonnes of resources like I have with Windows on many occasions.

If I had a good reason to give my parents' old 2007 C2D laptop a new job, I'd consider Linux for it. Even with a decent SSD in, I've seen this laptop on Win81 spend *hours* installing something like 4 updates, it didn't even fail to install any despite the delay.

Mint Cinammon is using more RAM than Kubuntu 20 did on my system, but with a web browser and e-mail app open it's only using 2.3GB RAM. I've seen Win10 use over 4 just sitting idly with no extra software installed.

 

[tinpanalley]

You haven't given much in the way of specifics

Agreed...
It was a Lenovo Y580. I have since upgraded the hdd to an SSD and upped the RAM to 16GB. As you said, hours for simple Windows updates and an infuriating amount of time starting up to fully operable. Plus, the upgrade to Windows 10 made me lose Bluetooth because this laptop was abandoned by Lenovo for full driver support.

 

[lxskllr]

If you don't mind spending money, buy a whole new drive to put linux on. If it doesn't work for some reason, put the windows drive back. If you don't want to spend money, image the drive, and restore windows if you want it back.

 

[crashtech]

@tinpanalley , that laptop should run any distro of Linux pretty well, like Mint Cinnamon. If you are worried about resource consumption and responsiveness, I would recommend Mint Xfce edition.

 

[tinpanalley]

If you don't mind spending money, buy a whole new drive to put linux on.

Good idea. I have an SSD I'm not using. I'll try that. Just need to find a distro I like. I like the way Zorin looks but I'm willing to explore other similar ones. I am not familiar with Linux. I've played around a lot but this would be a first time use.

I would recommend Mint Xfce edition.

I know this is irrelevant but I've never liked how mint looks.

 

[mxnerd]

Run "wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey" from Powershell to check if the license is on your laptop's BIOS

Redirecting

If it's in the BIOS, you can reinstall Windows any time and it will be automatically activated.

There might be a cd key sticker under your laptop too.

 

[JackMDS]

If you want to really be secure, Upgrade before the change to Win 11.

Get an Win 11 ISO from MS, then make a bootlable Flash drive using Rufus and upgrade to 11 from 10.

Rufus 3.18: bypass Windows 11 system requirements during Inplace upgrades - gHacks Tech News

The latest version of Rufus, a tool to create bootable USB Flash drives, supports bypassing Windows 11 system requirements during Inplace upgrades.

www.ghacks.net

 

[mxnerd]

Get VENTOY , the best multiboot software on a single flash drive

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ventoy

Put all kinds of OS images on one flash drive and choose the OS you want to install.

 

[crashtech]

...I know this is irrelevant but I've never liked how mint looks.

I don't consider it irrelevant at all, it's important to find a Linux distro that you like the look of. At this point the functionality between them is for most users a kind of hair-splitting.

 

[tinpanalley]

If you want to really be secure, Upgrade before the change to Win 11.

Get an Win 11 ISO from MS, then make a bootlable Flash drive using Rufus and upgrade to 11 from 10.

Rufus 3.18: bypass Windows 11 system requirements during Inplace upgrades - gHacks Tech News

The latest version of Rufus, a tool to create bootable USB Flash drives, supports bypassing Windows 11 system requirements during Inplace upgrades.

www.ghacks.net

I'm not trying to install Windows 11. My laptop wouldn't even be able to run it.

 

[mikeymikec]

Agreed...
It was a Lenovo Y580. I have since upgraded the hdd to an SSD and upped the RAM to 16GB. As you said, hours for simple Windows updates and an infuriating amount of time starting up to fully operable. Plus, the upgrade to Windows 10 made me lose Bluetooth because this laptop was abandoned by Lenovo for full driver support.

I bought a Broadwell i7 laptop off a customer on the cheap recently and just replaced the wifi+BT adapter with a new one (though beware that Lenovo likes to whitelist the adapters that can be used in their products). Aside from that I would have thought a quad-core CPU + SSD should be able to handle updates without performance going to pot.

 

[mxnerd]

chromeOS Flex is another choice. Your model might not be in the official support list though.

Certified models list - ChromeOS Flex Help

Last updated on: Feb 6th, 2023To ensure a consistent and high-quality experience, Google individually certifies and maintains a list of models that you can use with ChromeOS Flex. Model status

support.google.com

 

[mikeymikec]

Run "wmic path SoftwareLicensingService get OA3xOriginalProductKey" from Powershell to check if the license is on your laptop's BIOS

Redirecting

If it's in the BIOS, you can reinstall Windows any time and it will be automatically activated.

There might be a cd key sticker under your laptop too.

if it's not in the BIOS, you can reinstall Windows any time and it will be automatically reactivated

 

[tinpanalley]

just replaced the wifi+BT adapter with a new one

Where did you get that from?

 

[mikeymikec]

Where did you get that from?

Amazon in this case Once upon a time I was dealing with a customer's Lenovo laptop and anticipated replacing the wifi adapter without being aware of the whitelist. It didn't work in the laptop and I didn't end up needing it anyway. It gathered dust for some years on my shelf until I bought the Broadwell (Dell) laptop from another customer which had patchy wifi reception, I replaced it with that and was good to go.

Replacing a Lenovo wifi adapter - if the issue you're experiencing is as you say it is, I'd expect there to be a few threads on the Lenovo support forums about it. Someone will likely have found an adapter that works with that laptop and Win10, so just try and get that exact adapter.

 

[JackMDS]

I'm not trying to install Windows 11. My laptop wouldn't even be able to run it.

Your Laptop is an i7 computer. I run well Win 11 on Core2DUO laptop that is much older than yours.

With Win 11 you would get longer service and Updates than Win 10.

 

[tinpanalley]

Replacing a Lenovo wifi adapter - if the issue you're experiencing is as you say it is...

ACtually, it's the Bluetooth in the laptop that can't be used. I've read in more than one place and even confirmed by Lenovo somewhere at some point, that for Windows 10 they simply stopped producing and updating a driver for the laptop's Bluetooth adapter. So it doesn't even appear in Windows that you even have Bluetooth when you go to Network and Internet in settings.

 

[tinpanalley]

Your Laptop is an i7 computer. I run well Win 11 on Core2DUO laptop that is much older than yours.

Ok. Just hadn't thought about 11 on this machine. I suppose I could try but my ferar is that it gets even laggier and slower. Completely unrelated by the way but even my desktop which I built two years ago is telling me I can't run Windows 11. I don't understand how but there you go.

 

[tinpanalley]

chromeOS Flex is another choice. Your model might not be in the official support list though.

Certified models list - ChromeOS Flex Help

Last updated on: Feb 6th, 2023To ensure a consistent and high-quality experience, Google individually certifies and maintains a list of models that you can use with ChromeOS Flex. Model status

support.google.com

It's not on the list although the amount we've had to rely on our Galaxy Tab S7+ for mobile computing lately we did seriously consider seeing if we could run Chrome OS on it. More for fun than anything else. I think we'd still rather have Windows or Linux.

Speaking of which, we're trying to look into a new laptop. I was gonna post for help with that, but I just posted something else in the laptops forum and I don't want to monopolise the topic.

 

[JackMDS]

There are a lot of New laptops that are leggie too.


Almost all the manufacturers (Dell, HP, Lenove,Acer etc) have three tiers of Laptops.

The $250 - $400 that are based on very slow chipset (mainly AMD) and slow HDs or poor SSDs.

These laptop are slow No matter what you do.

The $450 - $600 that are based on i5-i7 and do well on every thing but Heavy Graphics.

The $700 and above that are Gaming Commuters and mostly work close to Desktop computers level.

Many times I came across Family and friends complaining like the OP while having sec. level and above Laptops.

Solution - Run Program like cCleaner and clean up the Internet and other caches.
Many time this clean delete GBs of space and useless stuff that was few years old.

CCleaner has also a Tool Menu with StartUp view. Look what run in Startup. Since cCleaner give you an option to just Disable Apps that start for no real functional reason, you can Disable a lot of the Junk and then if something that you need does not work, you can run again cCleaner and Re-enable it.
Then Run Win11/10 own Disk Cleaner to get rid of the Updates and install Junk.


Computer is Not a fashion industry, it based in Technology and most user under 40 years old got Brain WEashed by TV/Online Commercials and they do not get it. =

 

[Shmee]

If you are looking for a Linux to consider, I like Xubuntu a fair bit.