There are a range of issues:

 

Some machines apparently will only boot from known strings; if it isn’t “Windows Boot Loader” or sometimes “Red Hat Enterprise Linux" it won’t boot at all.

 

You also may need to either disable “Secure Boot” or install the shims designed to allow loading of a Linux image.

 

I suspect most of it is an issue with name-brand machines where they’re deliberately dialed to the most windows-centric defaults.  I’d be surprised if you had nearly as many issues with a homebuilt PC made from enthusiast bits.

 

From: Nathan England
Sent: ‎February‎ ‎5‎, ‎2013 ‎9‎:‎14‎ ‎PM
To: Main PLUG discussion list
Subject: Windows 8 Computers -- not off topic!




Hello Hello,


I read another article about the horrors of getting linux to run on a UEFI windows 8 machine. But I have NOT seen any articles discussing the option of NOT dual-booting! 


Is it dual-booting that causes the problems? What if I am willing to destroy Windows 8 and only load linux? Will I have problems?



-- 

Regards,


Nathan England


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

NME Computer Services http://www.nmecs.com

Nathan England (nathan@nmecs.com)

Systems Administration / Web Application Development

Information Security Consulting

(480) 559.9681