It's trivial to do even for a complete non-techie (just click next, next, ok, type something, next, next, done) and has been for a long time. The problem is that if you bought a computer with Windows that has bundled crapware, you won't get the vanilla Windows - the installation/recovery medium will have the same crapware bundled. You need to get your hands on a clean Windows, which usually means buying it (or pirating it, as was common in the past - yet another case where what you pirate is better for you than what you buy).
The last few times I've tried to install Windows on things, it was actually surprisingly horrible. The problem is, the generic install media has basically no drivers on it, so you have to go fetch it all manually, from all the respective manufacturers' web sites. It is, of course, fairly hard to download your network driver without a network driver, so you'd better have another computer and some USB storage around. Also, many of the drivers come only in the form of installer bundles that are themselves hundreds of megabytes and full of crapware.
In comparison, installing Ubuntu is a breeze, almost all the drivers you need are included with the install media and installed automatically, etc. Unless you have brand new, just-released hardware, it "just works", and even with brand new hardware there tend to be guides on the internet that are still easier than getting drivers installed on Windows.
Actual thing that happened: My mom said she needed to reformat an old laptop but didn't have the Windows media and wondered what to do. On a lark I suggested installing Ubuntu. A few weeks later, having not heard anything, I asked what happened to the laptop. She said she installed Ubuntu and it worked great. Never asked me a single question.
I've been amazed for years at how inferior the process of setting up a new Windows machine is to Linux, especially after hearing for years about how Linux supposedly was difficult compared to windows.
Not just the drivers, but pretty much everything I need for a new Linux system is available through apt. For windows, one must go to a dozen websites, download packages, and click next 10 times in each idiosyncratic install "wizard".
I had a similar experience with my mother, as well – I was constantly having to intervene with tech-support before I installed Ubuntu on her machine.
> I've been amazed for years at how inferior the process of setting up a new Windows machine is to Linux, especially after hearing for years about how Linux supposedly was difficult compared to windows.
That's because it is. Windows: do nothing, it's already installed. Linux: you have to install.
People compare what they have to do to get Windows on a new machine, which almost always (unless it's an Apple) already has it installed, with what they have to do to get Linux on a new machine, which almost always requires it to be installed. Even the simplest installer will be more difficult than "nothing".
If computers didn't come with any preinstalled operating system, the general opinion would be different.
(That said, most of the "Linux is difficult to install" sentiment is probably either based on outdated information from the time when you had to manually configure everything, or someone who had difficulties because of unsupported or poorly supported hardware.)
Sure, I agree with that. People who believed Linux was difficult to install rarely tried the same process with a Windows CD. Back in the day, I had plenty of mysterious, unsolvable issues like reboot loops trying to install Windows 2000 and 98.
I'm more thinking about setting up a new system. Whether it's Windows or Linux, I need to obtain things like an FTP program, a photo editor, a torrent manager, firefox, and so forth. It's a lot easier on Debian than Windows because you can get all of those in 5 minutes from the command line.
I wonder how long ago were you trying that. Since Windows 7 all drivers download themselves via Windows Update. So as long as you're not using a bootleg CD key for your Windows, it should install as smoothly as Ubuntu, only with more stuff working OOTB.
I would have to agree with the ease of loading vanilla windows. I've done it quite easily with both an Alienware 14 (2013) and a Sony Vaio that is 4 years old. I downloaded the proper copy of Windows from the MS site, which was Win 7 Ultimate 64bit for the Sony, and make a disk or usb stick. Then it was a few prompts and that was it. Instead of letting Windows Update load the drivers, I found my specific build on the Sony site with the correct drivers for all the bits and pieces. I did not install any of the free software, or Sony-specific software, which was easily to discern on the downloads page. Same for the Alienware. BTW, I have installed, used and programmed on OSX, Minix, FreeBSD, Ubuntu, Backbox, and others. I find the Windows/Linux/BSD/OS X comments on usage to be about preference rather than actual steps involved.
EDIT: I had the OEM Product Key on the Sony and AW, and they both registered fine without a problem, no need for pirated versions or any taxes.
Microsoft actually lets you download install media for Windows 7 and Windows 8 these days. You just need the license key. I haven't tried that for OEM, though.
Some people are saying that Lenovo's UEFI only allows an re-install from the Lenovo-provided Windows disks, otherwise it will show the Windows piracy warnings after a few weeks. However, I suspect that falls in the category of First World problems atm.
How should the UEFI cause the piracy warning to be displayed? Much more likely: Those people got their 'other' installation medium from ~somewhere~ and the activation failed.
Booh for Lenovo's actions and a crappy recovery medium, but I highly doubt that _this_ is actually more than FUD.
