Hello,

I'm an absolute newbie to Linux but I want something more secure and free than Windows 8.1. I have a new laptop with the UEFI bios and windows 8.1 on it from the OEM (Acer Aspire e1-572-6829). I I've read that certain OEMs are making it difficult to put other OSs on their laptops and those new laptops with Win 8 and UEFI may still have driver issues with different linux distros.

So before I get started I just want to ask is this really a common problem? Would this Acer model be viable as a linux machine? I was thinking of ubuntu or mint cinnamon.

P.S. Acer does have windows 7 drivers available for this machine listed on their website.

Many thanks!

If you fail to run linux in a secure and sensible mode, you will end up with issues.

I can't say for sure that a distro or not will work. You'd have to search on that. Generally if you don't care about ever having windows 8, a type of linux should be possible. (should).

I'm not sure about the driver situation. The Linux kernel is the Linux kernel. There isn't any reason why one distro would work and another one wouldn't since they're both using the same kernel. Some distros might be easier because they automate everything, but either all distros work or none work. As for UEFI, you will need to disable "Secure Boot" in the BIOS, and getting GRUB to dual-boot can be interesting, but there are instructions on how to do it.

If you're referring to the whole UEFI + "Secure Boot" I mentioned above, then yes. The page I linked to above should tell you everything ou need to know to do it. As for compatibility, try searching in LQ's Hardware Compatibility List.

That's nice, but it won't help. Windows drivers and Linux drivers are two completely different things.

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I have a hp pavillion 1 month old with uefi. everything i read pointed to a clean install, and it worked. after that i do have to change secure boot and legacy support, but it still works fine ,,,,with so far as puppy, kali and mint (cinnamon). I'm extremely new also, these guys are'nt kidding. Just read and ask. before you know it, it's fun :P oh i'm sorry i installed ubuntu 14 first i read that 12.04 +was supporting uefi

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