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Comment by retube | Hacker News Reader

Apart from the well-documented benefits of Ubuntu/Linux over windows, for me there's now a matter of principle: a machine with pre-installed windows is generally stuffed with bloat-ware. I recently bought an Acer Aspire with Windows 7 starter. It was riddled with anti-virus bollox and stuff for ebay, aol, BT etc etc. It's faster just to bung on Ubuntu then bother taking all this stuff off.

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If you're installing linux, why not just re-install windows? A fresh windows install == no third party bloatware. My biggest problem with windows is the lack of a proper shell (without install cygwin)

Many PC manufacturers supply a "recovery" disc or partition that reinstalls all the bloatware too, instead of a normal Windows installation CD/DVD.

Because Linux installers are superior in every way to Windows installers.

Are they really? I still have to unplug one of my monitors during Ubuntu install because otherwise it just doesn't work. I also still have issues with setting up dual boot with Windows as the installer can't setup partitions properly (in some cases at least).

Ah yes - I forgot to mention. To add insult to injury, there's no CD - a proper copy or "recovery" disc. Pretty common in the UK these days, certainly for budget systems.

Unfortunately even if you install cygwin, you're still limited in what you can do - cygwin doesn't handle dynamic compilation very well (like using 'pip'), among other things. Lack of a usable command line is what pushed me to switching to Ubuntu for my primary OS.

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