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I have a notebook from HP: its code is 15-ac089nl (Intel Core i5-5200U With GPU0 Intel HD 5500 2,2 GHz, GPU1 AMD Radeon R5 M330 2GB dedicated memory DDR3). You can see full specs in HP web site.

Does anyone know if it's compatible with Ubuntu 16.04.3?

I would like to format the hard disk, but since the Windows 10 license key is in Uefi it would be very hard to eventually come back...

Thanks in advance!

Andrea
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  • Windows 10 license key is in Uefi, indeed UEFI as in the firmware, not the ESP (EFI System Partition), even formating the whole drive (not required) won't delete your Windows key.. You can go back anytime you want and you can also dual boot. –  Jan 09 '18 at 15:45
  • Thanks for your answer. I have done your same considerations, but I've found several persons with problems in (eventually) coming back. The notebook where I would like to install Ubuntu (or more probably Lubuntu) has got an embedded license of Windows 10, so I've used a program to take the license key. It seems a smooth way, but if you 'google' a little you see that is not so smooth... or, better, I don't feel myself so sure! – Andrea Jan 11 '18 at 09:51

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Running a live cd would give you a good idea if your hardware is compatible. This applies to GPUs as well at least for the open source drivers. If you want to test the closed source ones things get more tricky and you'd probably need to install.

However if you wanted to come back to Windows 10 as long as you're currently activated you're either active on SLP (which is embeded in the UEFI) or it uses your mobo serial number and Windows will activate again on the same machine.

jdwolf
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  • Thanks for your answer. Unluckily, may times in the past I've tried to test a live cd with success but after (or during) the installation I've experienced a lot of problems. I'm a Lubuntu user from several years, I use it also for my work, but this is the first time I try to install on a computer with Uefi. So, after having 'googled' a lot I've seen that to eventually come back it's not so easy. The computer it's not mine, a colleague has asked to me to install Lubuntu over Win10 but I'm a little worried about... – Andrea Jan 11 '18 at 09:47