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[–] 5916289? 0 points 4 points (+4|-0) ago 

Download and burn several popular distros and boot to live DVD and see if your wifi etc. all work, before choosing what to put on your hard drive.

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[–] Anti-Stupid [S] 0 points 2 points (+2|-0) ago 

Thanks for the advice. Is it possible to brick my laptop if I jump the gun on a distro?

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[–] 5916351? 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

Not likely to literally brick it, but not all the hardware may work as expected, such as graphics, sound, and especially wifi. Some distributions will fail to boot properly, which isn't actually bricking, since you can still boot from DVD or USB, but why go through that when you can test a live DVD first.

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[–] luckyguy ago  (edited ago)

Not really. You can brick your prior OS (and only the OS) if you don't pay attention durring the install process but bricking durring live-cd use isn't going to happen. I've read about more cases of a windows update bricking a computer than a live-cd.

I like Mixplates idea of burning a few before even installing, but Mint is your target. I'm not even a Mint fanboy, I run Arch, but mint is the defacto answer for new users.

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[–] aileron_ron 0 points 1 point (+1|-0) ago 

If your using windows 7 then Linux mint is for you, Download aan ISO to usb and just do a live mint

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[–] Anti-Stupid [S] ago 

I wanted something to completely replace windows on my laptop

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[–] aileron_ron ago 

Linux mint should do it.