<div dir="ltr">I have received a reply from Samsung. The main part of it is here:<div><br><div>"My apologies, but as I do not have the answer to your query to hand, I have had to email our Samsung product specialist to enlist their aid with this issue. Once I hear back from them I will be back in touch with you as soon as possible."</div>
</div><div><br></div><div style>Brian</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 28 March 2013 11:44, Brian A <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bradlug@techchico.org.uk" target="_blank">bradlug@techchico.org.uk</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">Reply to Daniel: Well, according to the review, the salient points to me are that it is not possible to switch off secure boot, nor is it possible to boot from a CD or a USB stick.<div>
<br></div><div>Reply to John: Thanks for the link to the article. I haven't yet watched all the video that is linked from that page. By chance I was listening to the 'PC Pro Podcast' this morning and they discussed the same thing as in the article. The response from the panel was mixed but the argument in Microsoft's favour was that secure boot could be switched off. However, in practice, it seems, from the Amazon review, that secure boot can't always be switched off and, even if it could be it would be an uphill struggle to do an installation if cd or USB media could not be used.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I have sent an email to Samsung asking their advice on which of their laptops to purchase. It will be interesting to see their reply.I received an auto reply which states that I should have a reply within 48 hours.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Microsoft is not know for shirking when it comes to 'evil'. Who knows, but they could lean on hardware providers to get them to make the installation of other operating systems very hard/impossible to do.</div>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888">
<div><br></div><div>Brian</div><div><br></div><div><br><div><br></div><div><br></div></div></font></span></div><div class="HOEnZb"><div class="h5"><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On 27 March 2013 17:33, John Robert Hudson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:j.r.hudson@virginmedia.com" target="_blank">j.r.hudson@virginmedia.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">Just spotted this on the subject:<br>
<br>
<a href="http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/23817.html" target="_blank">http://mjg59.dreamwidth.org/23817.html</a><br>
<div><br>
John<br>
--<br>
On Wed, 2013-03-27 at 12:17 +0000, Brian A wrote:<br>
</div><div><div>> I am wanting to buy a new laptop. So, obviously I want to ditch<br>
> whatever Microsoft toy OS is on there and put on Linux. This, in<br>
> keeping with getting a matt 17" screen, amongst other things, is a<br>
> nightmare to research. I read a review on Amazon of a Samsung laptop,<br>
> which seemed to be a reasonable spec for the price, but a 'no no' as<br>
> far as installing any other OS.<br>
> I'd be interested to know what others think of the points of this<br>
> review in that regard.<br>
><br>
><br>
> Look for the heading 'APPALLING - AVOID!!!'.<br>
><br>
><br>
> <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B009SJCX68" target="_blank">http://www.amazon.co.uk/product-reviews/B009SJCX68</a><br>
><br>
><br>
><br>
> This was written before the release of the UEFI facilitated Ubuntu<br>
> 12.04.2, but I don't know if that would make any difference anyway.<br>
><br>
><br>
> Brian<br>
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<br>
<br>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>
</div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>