this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2024
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Linux
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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).
Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.
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You should not have to buy a new key for a machine that came with windows. That will most likely automatically activate back to whichever edition you had before the wipe.
I haven't used windows in quite a while, but while I did, on laptops sold with windows there was a recovery partition on them you could reinstall windows from. If you removed that partition you had no legal way of reinstalling, because no key was made available to you at any point.
Do you know off the top if it's intact if I "fully wiped" it during the installation of a different OS?
Microsoft "fingerprints" your machine when you activate windows on it. You can completely replace the hard drive and reinstall windows from scratch, and they'll figure out your activation on their end.