Oh no, by default you understand completely right. Windows 10 tracks EVERYTHING you do, and sends it ALL to Microsoft to "improve your user experience". But you can turn MOST of it off.

well its given me a year and half of pure linux and because of the steep learning curve im hoping im now over the really sharp slope now. Im finding im more comfortable using terminal instead of a gui file manager and pushing through bash (oh-my-zsh for me now), vim, the file structure and how linux is all put together/works. Im from a programming background (this is all me, site and software) so i think i shall get there although atm it seems the more i learn about linux the more i realize just how little i know. I should have been learning this stuff years and years ago but windows GUI was so intuitive and user friendly that i would never have wanted to, until 10 came along.

Time to see if sleep will come again i think.

Cheers mate.

well that one was gone by the time i got up this morning, yea i can search others but im looking at the inspiron again because the screen rez is 1600 x 900 as opposed to the 1366x768 of the acer.

The ubuntu certification list shows the inspiron wifi chipset as Intel Wireless 3160 https://certification.ubuntu.com/cer.../201507-18601/

Was there any known major problems with this inspiron other than the wireless (if its Broadcom)

No, other than the broadcom wireless most Inspirons work well out of the box with linux.

well i still have not pulled the trigger. Problem now is im not 100% sure about AMD video on the latest linux distros.

Will this vid hardware work ?
AMD Radeon™ R5 M335 4GB DDR3

I asked the seller to try a live ubuntu 16.04 and he said he could not get it to even see the AMD video.

I suspect i can sort that with this:-
However, Im still confused because of posts like this:-
http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2016/03/u...x-driver-16-04

So worst case is, because the laptop im looking at is skylake it will need the latest distros but it looks like the graphics my not work (or least be a PITA).

oh-my-head.sh

The only thing I can say is that I have a laptop with Radeon R2 graphics (E2-7110 w/ integrated) and it works fantastic with Debian Jessie (using backports for everything available), Debian Stretch, Arch and Fedora. I don't have any R5's to test.

I would just copy your build directly but its such a small screen even if it is full HD.

Anyhow quick question is linux ok with Kaby-lake processors ?

Haven't gotten a Kaby lake to test, but they should be. Kaby lake is a VERY minor tweak of Skylake. It's not a new process nor a totally new design. It's a second "tock" in the tick-tock Intel design family. It doesn't even require a new chipset (just a bios upgrade) from Skylake's chipset (can't remember the name), so if it works with Skylake, it should in theory work in Kaby lake. I'll probably pick up a Kaby cpu when Dell releases the Latitude line with them, thus far all the Kaby's I've seen released have been underwhelming for me to pay the $$$$ asked.

Yea i was reading it was a minor change along with ability to block use/installation of win7/8/8.1.

I cant find what i was reading now but something gave me the idea that Intel Core™ i5-7200U was kabylake http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.d...m=391603806616 quite likely i read or understood wrong.

K thx.

It is. The first number in any Intel chip is the generation: i5-7200U is a 7th generation U-series (ultra low voltage) processor.

The exception would be if they come out with Skylake-e, which although based on the Skylake core, will be badged as ix-7xxx processors (such as the broadwell-e i7-6800K, which is marketed as 6th generation which would NORMALLY be all skylakes).

hmm i see. well iv ordered today (link in post above). I cant do any more researching its not fun although iv learned a few things about newer comps.

whats the chance i'll be back next week asking something regarding compatibility but as far as i can tell iv removed potential problems and gone for a quite commonly certified comp.

We shall see on monday/tuesday. i'll let you know either way.

Thank you for all your help Tim,

JackDinn,

Probably too late to try this HP 250 G5 (Intel) from ebuyer at £299.99:
http://www.ebuyer.com/749792-hp-250-...op-w4m90ea-abu

Specification:
http://support.hp.com/in-en/document/c05078579

Article:
http://linuxbsdos.com/2016/11/05/dis...250-g5-laptop/

NB There is only one SODIMM slot which has a 4GB memory module installed.
If 8GB is required it will be necessary to buy a 8GB replacement module. Make sure you get the correct one with the right latency etc.

Wifi: Wifi: Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3165 802.11a/b/g/n/ac (1x1)

Graphics: Intel HD 5500.

Manual:
http://h20565.www2.hp.com/hpsc/doc/p...r_na-c05087748

hi, well thx beachboy2 but i got my inspiron and so far everything has worked as expected. I already have win7,win10, mint18 kde & kali, parallel boots (and tails works fine to). I kept the win10 for now just in case it needs to go back (touch wood).

So yea im pleased with it. If i were forced to criticize this lappy id say the only thing that could be better is the keyboard, it needs better fixings, as it does depress very slightly when you press on it but when your playing a lottery like this things could have been a whole lot worse. Honestly cant fault much else.

Many thx to all on this thread,

Nice, you got one with Intel Wireless!

yep, the idea was as little messing around as pos and thats what i got in the end