#Getting a laptop in a few days

35 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

knotty tartan
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So ye I am getting a new laptop in a few days ( Sunday ) so I needed to know how and what I should download

I am getting it for college so I personally want to use Linux but also windows for a few games so it anyone has any good tutorials on dual and which Linux distribution to install and if I should totally reinstall windows to remove bloatware

And any software to download a lot of softwares together as a package and any other recommendations to do on the new laptop

( must probably it will be some dell inspiron or vostro )

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I am doing computer science in college btw and will try to go into full stack

hushed kettle
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Depending of the brand, it may come full of bloatware, so generally a clean Windows installation (not a restore) is recommended
Besides that, depending of what you use is what you download, I consider VLC/mpv and NanaZip as the bare minimum, besides your browser of choice
Regarding Linux, it's tricky, Windows will reset the EFI partition with any new Windows version update, so you will have to manually restore the Linux bootloader each time this happens, unless the laptop can take two separate storage devices and you can have an EFI partition and booloader on each, one for each OS

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For distros I recommend either an Ubuntu based one like Mint or Kubuntu, of Fedora. I personally use Fedora when I have to deal with Linux nonsense

knotty tartan
hushed kettle
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you can do it without issue, it's just taking free space from the storage and using it to install linux there

knotty tartan
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Also I have no idea what you just said about the EFI partition thingy

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A bit simpler terms?

hushed kettle
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the problem is that having 2 OS on a single storage means they share the EFI partition to boot

knotty tartan
hushed kettle
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when you install an OS on a modern PC, some "system important" parts of the storage are created too

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one is the EFI partition, handles reporting to the PC what OSs are available to boot

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so in an ideal world, you install windows, then linux, and the efi partition reports both

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problem is, windows update periodically cleans the efi partition and only adds back the windows boot entry

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not much of a problem to fix once you learn how to re-build the linux boot entry manually with a live usb, but it's a chore

knotty tartan
hushed kettle
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linux will be there intact, but the PC won't be able to boot into it due to this

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so it's either rebuilding the linux boot entry, or using separate storage (separate SSD) to have one OS on each, so they don't mess each other up

knotty tartan
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I ain't that much into pcs more simpler terms please

hushed kettle
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you can try to find a laptop that accepts multiple drives, two nvme ssd for example

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the stock one for windows, and you buy a second one for linux and install it there

knotty tartan
hushed kettle
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yep

knotty tartan
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There's a difference between an extra slot and needing to buy an extra nvme

hushed kettle
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an extra 50 bucks, yeah

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only very expensive laptops come with multiple slots already filled with ssds, so it defeats the purpose kek

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the other option is nastier
install only linux and deal with windows on a virtual machine

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anyone that tried this will tell you it sucks

knotty tartan
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Just nvme m.2 slots

hushed kettle
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nvmes are ssds, just on a pcie interface

knotty tartan
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Nah I meant they don't have 2.5 inch sata ssds slot

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Space for them

hushed kettle
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well if you can find one with at least 2 m.2 nvme slots, that's a way to solve it

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it's so common there are even memes about it kek

prince-charles-windows-update-stealing-uefi-boot-partition-from-linux-wheelchair-wheel.png