i just bought myself a new laptop that comes with windows 8 pre installed .. now i hate windows 8 .. i wanted to know ..if i uninstall windows 8 and install windows 7 ,will the UEFI thing go away ? i hate the concept of it and it seems hard to install ubuntu alongside windows 8 .. so is there a way i can do that - remove windows 8 ,install windows 7 and then dual boot it with ubuntu in the normal method ? will removing windows 8 remove the UEFI thing ? thanks ! :)
2 Answers
UEFI is a BIOS-replacement (to be short); so no you can't remove UEFI. What you can do is switch the secure boot option off in UEFI ; this will be enough for having Ubuntu after all on your system. There is no need to switch to a Windows 7, it will lead you to illegal actions and why should you? W8 provides all you need from Windows (this is not sarcastic mend lol).
To be short: in UEFI should be an option for switching of the secure boot option. (But there are already laptops that doesn't provide this option, yet minor models)
Ubuntu 12.10 and higher are ideal for setting up a dual boot with W8 (newer kernel with much more support for newer laptops).
12.04 is maybe good enough; this you have to check in a live mode if everything is supported. (12.04.2 has a newer kernel like 12.10 so this should be fine)
As Joris said,turn of "Secure Boot" and install 12.04.2 or newer version. Remember to use 64-bit version :)
Have installed Ubuntu 12.10 64-bit dualboot with Win8 myself..
Read here: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UEFI
Its not recommended to install with WUBI..
