[SOLVED] Do I need to be concerned about purchasing a laptop with Windows 11 if I intend to immediately replace Windows with Linux?
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Do I need to be concerned about purchasing a laptop with Windows 11 if I intend to immediately replace Windows with Linux?
I thought I remembered reading somewhere that the hardware gets signed to Microsoft or something and some kind of Microsoft-call-in to unlock the boot loader or something related was going to be a thing with a Win11?
Is this just tin foil hattery or is this concern legit?
In my experience I never worried about that as I have installed Linux on new devices without even booting ever to Windows as I wiped the drive clean. Just disable secure-boot in the BIOS and you should be able to install Linux.
I think what it means is that Microsoft gets some hardware information (motherboard, graphics card and maybe more) into which it ties the activation code. You can only change some of the items and only a number of times, else you loose your activation or you need to call them to reactivate. It does not look like it applies to laptops.
In very rare cases secure boot will be difficult or impossible to disable on some hardware that ships with Win11. Then you have to follow your distro's howto for secure boot support which can vary in difficulty from almost automagic to an extremely involved cli exercise with many potential pitfalls suitable only for an advanced linux user (depending on which distro you use).
I thought I remembered reading somewhere that the hardware gets signed to Microsoft or something and some kind of Microsoft-call-in to unlock the boot loader or something related was going to be a thing with a Win11?
Is this just tin foil hattery or is this concern legit?
Try to buy your PC with FreeDOS. If possible, dont give money to MS.
The FreeDOS notebooks can be ordered on DELL,.... notebook manufacturers.
Try to buy your PC with FreeDOS. If possible, dont give money to MS.
The FreeDOS notebooks can be ordered on DELL,.... notebook manufacturers.
Biz that makes hardware.............. should sell hardware............ with an option to add OS.
Many years ago I recall Dell had that option when configuring systems online to buy.
But when an OS comes with hardware, can't the buyer sell the MS product code to someone else?
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