[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] The impossible? Buy a laptop WITHOUT Microsoft Windows?

[Robert Primak]

 My Intel NUC came with no OS. I put together a system with (up to this minute) Windows 10 Pro (from a previous NUC build), and in an enclosure, a SSD with Ubuntu and Mint Linux, with plans to add Fedora 35 and MX Linux (formerly MEPIS Linux and Anti-X Linux). 
The NUC is a small form-factor PC resembling a Mac Mini, but with very generic (but powerful) Intel hardware you install yourself or get a company to assemble all or parts of it for you. I chose Simply NUC because of their excellent reputation and their ability to obtain the most up to date Intel processors even with the current supply-chain difficulties. What they put together was done in Ireland and then shipped to a US distribution center before being shipped to me. 
They installed Ubuntu Linux, but it would not boot from their internal SSD (probably too recent a design, being PCIE4, while Ubuntu only supports up to PCIE2). So I rearranged everything to come up with the current configuration which works for Windows and Linux. And I learned some enclosure and SSD "gotchas" along the way. Later through my Mint install, I found proprietary Intel drivers for lots of things, so I could try again for an internal Ubuntu install. 
So that's one option to have everything just the way I want it. And the way I want it is with Linux front and center. 
By the way, Linux can be installed on an older business class laptop (if you're careful to check the Compatibility Lists for your intended Linux distros) and you'd have a real screamer compared with the same laptop under Windows 8.1 or Windows 10. Dick Miller (Miller Micro) of Natick FOSS does this sort of thing all the time, and it can be VERY cheap!
So if you don't want to be stuck on Windows 10 and you can't upgrade to Windows 11, you are a candidate for a Linux conversion. But relax folks! Windows 10 isn't going away any time soon. 
The only downside of getting me started about this sort of thing (I'm scheduled to give this talk on Dec. 29th to our Group) is to limit myself to just fifteen to twenty minutes! 
-- Bob Primak
    On Saturday, December 4, 2021, 05:37:49 PM EST, Steve Isenberg <smisenberg at gmail.com> wrote:  
 
 Gentlepeople,Do you know of any place where you can buy one of those really powerful systems (like, Intel i7, good graphics, HD display, 500GB SSD, 16GB memory) and save money by buying the machine without an operating system (like Windows)?I'm thinking of trying to install a Linux release on the machine and try it for video editing.  Every place I look bundles the machine with Microsoft Windows.Thanks,-steve
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