Ubuntu

Laptop with ubuntu pre-installed

Asked by david

Hi,
I would very much appreciate hearing opinions about the following:
I've decided to replace my pc with a laptop. In my neck of the woods laptops with Ubuntu preinstalled are not easy to find! Possible, but not easy, and, since the vast majority of laptops come with w8, the choice & price is extensive. So, my question is:
Is there actually any advantage in buying a laptop with Ubuntu preinstalled (everything "working" much better) over buying the laptop of my choice & simply installing Ubuntu as I have with my PC?
Interested to hear from those of you with experience of both possibilities.....
many thanks,
david

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Anton Kanishchev
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Jeremiah Njoroge (jnjoroge) said : 		#1

This question can either way.

Installing it yourself means you own the support and have to figure out(with the help of the community) how things work and various options with the install that you should explore further.

Purchasing a pre-installed laptop - you get what the seller/manufacturer wanted to expose you to. It's a good thing for starters and if you don't want to futz with the OS. the good thing with going this route is, you can get your feet wet with Ubuntu and once you are ready to take the full plunge, you can wipe the pre-install and do your own install.

hope this helps.

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david (zaanta) said : 		#2

Hi Jeremiah,
I should have included the fact that I have successfully wiped w7 from my pc & done the full install with Ubuntu, so I am familiar with the OS &....have to say: "love it"! So, there wouldn't be any "nerves" for me to do the full install on a w8 preinstalled machine. I only wondered if there was any real advantage to getting a laptop with Ubuntu already preinstalled??

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Best Anton Kanishchev (ak12-deactivatedaccount) said : 		#3

Some minor advantages (and dissadvantages):

Not that many sellers on the whole selling laptops with ubuntu (or any linux distro in general ) preinstalled.The Linux Emporium(UK) system76 (US only? ) , see http://linuxpreloaded.com/ for more.

Installing yourself==
1-as Jeremiah already mentioned, you are your own support, but you can choose exactly what laptop you want since most will work .
2- you potentially learn more about how to install ubuntu , not making you tied down with a manufacturer.

3-it is not very taxing (even less so if you have done it before) and you get to set up everything as you see fit (for example if you wanted to have separate /home and /root /boot partitions, ).

4- some components may not work (common culptits are fingerprint readers ) as they rely on windows based software to run.

5- you can choose the budget/components of your laptop much more precisely.

Preinstalled==
1- vendors will give you what they think will suit you best, if you have any problems they will support your installation
2- Not nessesarily any cheaper than getting a windows pc and wiping it. (since OEM's fill windows with trial software to get back some of the costs, and the fact that millions of Win Pc's are made vs a very small proprtion of linux preinstalled laptops.)

3- you may get warranty on your laptop, I am not sure how happy an OEM manufacturer would be to support just the hardware of the laptop if you installed ubuntu on it.

Conclusion: No wrong answer here really , installing yourself will take up about an hour of your time, vs waiting for a preinstalled laptop (and potentially paying for the privilege of getting ubuntu installed for you).

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david (zaanta) said : 		#4

Thanks Anton Kanishchev, that solved my question.