In my book, here's how a reasonable "sure-fire way" to install Linux would look, to use FSF terminology.
1. download a bootable usbkey image of the distro of your choice
2. burn it (preferably straight from the browser with no save-then-locate-then-open-burner-app steps), without overwriting any data already on the usbkey in question
3. if still booted into win8 on the target device, tells you to save & close & reboot ... but booting into win8 on the target device is *not* in any way required, you can always use a usbkey/dvd/cd/whatnot that you created on some other system, or purchased, or whatever
4. upon booting the target device, the bios autodetects multiple bootable media (internal drive + external usbkey ... and supports booting from usb3 as well as from usb2 might I add), automatically *asks* you whether to boot from internal hdd/ssd or from new usbkey/cd/dvd (not forcing you to hit F12 or somesuch... although by default there can be a 15-second countdown and then it boots from the internal media), offering appropriate names ("original win8" versus "new linux $DISTRO installer" rather than hardware-chipset-names). If there is a SecureBoot blockage, the BIOS warns you of the trouble, but when you confirm you want to install Linux anyways, makes it *easy* for you to add the new digisig into your device, preferably pulling it automagically straight from the linux boot-media ... much like a firmware-flash-update but less drastic. (Ideally it would also help you create a personal self-signed digisig, but that is above and beyond the call of duty.)
5. upon selecting the linux installer, and getting confirmation, it automagically clonezillas your existing setup, automagically uses parted to adjust your internal hdd/ssd appropriately, installs grub, automagically installs your distro for you with appropriate defaults, downloads the latest security patches from the internet, sets your timezone using geolocation, detects your lang&keyb from the bios/win8 installation, and *then* takes you into the full distro for 'final configuration' steps (no rebooting required)
6. this final stage might involve uninstalling some of the auto-packages, or adding some non-auto-packages, or just tweaking settings (plus confirming the automagic choices made during silent-install were not borked).
Obviously, this one-size-fits-all approach is no good for sysadmins at a large ISP, or developers working with complex hypervisor setups, or what not... but those folks can take care of themselves (and putting this Tillie-infrastructure in place will help the tech-savvy folks do *their* job more efficiently as well as making it *easy* for Tony to get his laptop booting Linux -- no muss and no fuss).
Sure-Fire Way To Install $OS_OF_YOUR_CHOICE
1. download a bootable usbkey image of the distro of your choice
2. burn it (preferably straight from the browser with no save-then-locate-then-open-burner-app steps), without overwriting any data already on the usbkey in question
3. if still booted into win8 on the target device, tells you to save & close & reboot ... but booting into win8 on the target device is *not* in any way required, you can always use a usbkey/dvd/cd/whatnot that you created on some other system, or purchased, or whatever
4. upon booting the target device, the bios autodetects multiple bootable media (internal drive + external usbkey ... and supports booting from usb3 as well as from usb2 might I add), automatically *asks* you whether to boot from internal hdd/ssd or from new usbkey/cd/dvd (not forcing you to hit F12 or somesuch... although by default there can be a 15-second countdown and then it boots from the internal media), offering appropriate names ("original win8" versus "new linux $DISTRO installer" rather than hardware-chipset-names). If there is a SecureBoot blockage, the BIOS warns you of the trouble, but when you confirm you want to install Linux anyways, makes it *easy* for you to add the new digisig into your device, preferably pulling it automagically straight from the linux boot-media ... much like a firmware-flash-update but less drastic. (Ideally it would also help you create a personal self-signed digisig, but that is above and beyond the call of duty.)
5. upon selecting the linux installer, and getting confirmation, it automagically clonezillas your existing setup, automagically uses parted to adjust your internal hdd/ssd appropriately, installs grub, automagically installs your distro for you with appropriate defaults, downloads the latest security patches from the internet, sets your timezone using geolocation, detects your lang&keyb from the bios/win8 installation, and *then* takes you into the full distro for 'final configuration' steps (no rebooting required)
6. this final stage might involve uninstalling some of the auto-packages, or adding some non-auto-packages, or just tweaking settings (plus confirming the automagic choices made during silent-install were not borked).
Obviously, this one-size-fits-all approach is no good for sysadmins at a large ISP, or developers working with complex hypervisor setups, or what not... but those folks can take care of themselves (and putting this Tillie-infrastructure in place will help the tech-savvy folks do *their* job more efficiently as well as making it *easy* for Tony to get his laptop booting Linux -- no muss and no fuss).