!rant

I'm in big dilemma for a few days. About what to do to my HP stream. It was bought from overseas so it has licensed windows 10. It only has got 32GB for storage. And I only have like 1GB 2GB free space. I am using it for presentation, urgent quick code debug, watching movies and browsing internet.

So the dilemma is should I abandon the license windows 10 and install a lightweight Linux distro or not? 🤔

If it's an OEM version of windows, it will never be able to be transferred because it is keyed with the motherboard. You should be able to reinstall it on the same PC though.
Most PCs come with OEM.

If it is a full version of windows, you can move the key.

I would recommend to install a lightweight Linux while you're doing this presentation stuff. Or you can just pop in a micro SD card and boot from that?

@coolq I have put 64GB micro SD card but it works super slow. Is it because of the SD card or my laptop? I'm a noob when it comes to hardware.

@CurseMeSlowly
Can you give me the model of SD card? It could just be that. I'll do some research on the reader of the stream(11?)

Although to be honest, speed won't really matter, once you're OS and programs are loaded into RAM, it should be fine. Boot times and program startup will be like going back to the hard drive days.

@coolq stream 13. Thank you very much for helping me. Here is the card.

No problem.

So, from what I've found(after reading through the official spec) is that the SD card reader is slower than the SD card itself.

So theoretically, you will be experiencing around 50Mbs read speeds. Keep in mind that's megabits, not megabytes.

So you should be all good to go in that area.

To boot off your SD card, allegedly the BIOS needs you to create a manual boot partition, I'm sure you can figure that part out.

All in all, you should easily be able to use it.

Also, could you just put your presentation, movies..etc. directly on the SD card, instead of booting off it?

@coolq ok I'm gonna try that approach. Yeah my data are on SD cards and external hard disk. The whole 32GB is used up by windows + Microsoft word + excel + PowerPoint 😑

@CurseMeSlowly
Okay, good luck mate!

Which approach are you going to to
try?

@coolq gonna try to install a Linux distro on microsd first 😁 if it works well, good I don't need to do anything more. If it doesn't, I am gonna replace windows with Linux. I'll just have to save my license keys and hope for the best to be able to use on another PC.

@CurseMeSlowly
So the licence of windows came with the PC?

@coolq I can see the product keys on my computer's properties .. so I can just copy it and use. Right?

@coolq want a windows 10 license? 🤔 I probably won't need it anyway.

@CurseMeSlowly
Unfortunately it doesn't quite work like that.

Windows seperated their product keys into two seperate versions.

There is OEM, and normal licence.
OEM is the one that usually comes with aPC since it is much cheaper. Can be around $20-$30 rather than $150.

The problem with these keys, is that once they are activated on a computer it sticks to the motherboard. Basically meaning you can only use that licence on that computer.

A full licence lets your move it.

So with OEM, you should still be able to reinstall it on the same computer, but I realise that might not be so handy if you plan to uninstall windows permanently.

If you're willing to, you can put up with the "Activate Windows" text permanently in the corner, you get windows 10 for legally for free that way.

Good luck mate!

If it is a full licence, I'd love it :D

@coolq how do I check my license is full or not? Will it show on my windows account profile section?

@CurseMeSlowly
Here's a good website, has the steps to find out.

Let's hope it's RETAIL :)

http://mywindowshub.com/determine-w...

@coolq 😁 I hope it won't steal mine hehehe. Thanks mate.

@CurseMeSlowly
Haha, I hope not, I've ran that command a lot 😛

@coolq 😓 I should just replace it with linux then

@CurseMeSlowly
Yep, all good man. You can change back to windows only on this machine, it should detect it on installation.

But if you don't want windows, yeah, that kind of sucks.

I've felt this exact pain 😪

Good luck one again! (triple luck?)

@coolq stupid licenses types. So I am thinking of popos because it is beautiful 😁. Any lightweight recommendations?

@CurseMeSlowly
Pop!_OS is good.

Here's some suggestions that should run and boot fast:
Linux lite (don't let the lite fool you)
Lubuntu (pretty nice)
Ubuntu MATE and Linux Mint (actually fits in well, works nicely with GTK themes)
Bodhi Linux (this is quite light, too light?)
Puppy Linux (is this too far with the lightness?)
Tiny Core (yes, this is too far)

More "normal" distros, may not be as snappy:
Ubuntu (standard)
Fedora (want to sound fancy?)
Arch (notoriously hardcore installation)

@coolq I have tired the bottom 3 and consider them heavy. Tired half of the light you suggested. Gonna look up on Tiny Core, Bohdi and Linux Lite. I haven't tried them before.

@CurseMeSlowly
Okay, awesome!

Going to have to call or a night here.
That was fun!
I love talking to fellow developers 😊

Also, for interest, what we you're username before you changed it?

@coolq nice chatting mate. Old username was mrlinnth 😁

@CurseMeSlowly
Think I recognise that!
Good night!

@coolq 20+GB free. There is the unstable wifi issue though. But I'm fine with that since I'm using it mainly as a mobile laptop. 😁

@LeFlawk
Oh okay, thanks for correcting me with the installation thing. I haven't got much experience with it as you can tell.

I put it in the second category because it's up against puppy Linux and tiny Core :P

@CurseMeSlowly
Looking good!

@coolq not good dude. I had to left it with a worry. Unstable wifi connection issue and keyboard and mouse also have issues.

@CurseMeSlowly
What OS did you end up with?

@coolq Manjaro with XFCE .. still have the stucky auto going home button or top arrow bug. I am starting to doubt it is my hardware problem rather than software.

@CurseMeSlowly
Yeah, Ubuntu probably would have been safer 😪

Still able to switch?

@coolq yeah I'm gonna test it out tonight and see how it goes.

@CurseMeSlowly
Alright, good luck my fellow DevRant friend!

@coolq decided to give pop a chance again and tried today. All done. WiFi works, keyboard mouse no problem, installed LAMP, sublime text, composer, node etc. All good. 😀 I was just not patience enough last time 😋

@CurseMeSlowly
Dude, I am so happy for you. Nothing beats a perfect Linux installation.

Good job 👍