Seems to me that it's not a legit copy of Windows that comes preinstalled--that doesn't necessarily bother me, but I just want to know if there's anything else sketchy going on. I understand security's a spectrum, but I don't want to needlessly expose myself within reason.
On a similar note, I thought about just avoiding the OS altogether. I'm interested in trying out Mint XFCE, but my attempts to use VirtualBox to run it in a VM failed miserably and immediately. Has anyone had success running Mint bare metal or on a USB?
Alternatively, what's the most compatible distro that just works? I've flipped through some other posts but wonder if anything's changed by late 2024 (I have a N4000). I'm ok with fixing the screen (seems painless enough) and maybe even reinstalling some drivers, but would rather not make a job out of this (if it can be avoided).
I reinstalled the OS (both Mint & then Windows--both were pretty painless), but was ultimately unable to get the touchscreen working (as many others reported, the inverse axis problem: e.g. I can scroll up/down if I swipe left/right on the screen :-/ ).
Was there ever a real fix for this or does it just kinda depend on your luck/machine? I tried reinstalling the drivers 3x but am willing to try some more before giving up.
The screen defaulted to 90 degrees/portrait mode in both Linux & Windows (after reinstalling--the touchscreen worked fine when it first arrived). Trying to calibrate did nothing (other than flip the screen back to portrait). It's usable with a mouse, but I'd like the screen to work too.
The seller on Ali is good about communicating, but they're incredibly annoying to deal with, wasting my time every step of the way (can't tell if it's just this seller or bad translations or what, but I'd leave the guy -5 stars for a review if I could), so I thought I'd try asking here as well
Edit: Well, this is embarrassing: I got it right after submitting this. Downloaded Reploid's driver, uninstalled & deleted the old GoodixTouchDriver from Device Manager, unzipped Reploid's driver & installed by right clicking (rather than using Reploid's steps to use Device Manager)