Umm, I really, really have no idea (wow, I'm being a useful resource here!)--the first thing I did when I got it home was install Linux, completely overwriting

Umm, I really, really have no idea (wow, I'm being a useful resource here!)--the first thing I did when I got it home was install Linux, completely overwriting even the backup partition (I had to do that in switching to software raid, I think). So I've had this laptop for maybe two months (enough time to install the Windows 8 developer preview, granted) and run Linux exclusively. I really can't answer your question. What I can say, though, is that while Linux tends to have more driver problems than Windows initially, they tend to be much simpler to solve. So if you can't upgrade from Windows, just switch to Linux ;) For every sleepless night I've spent looking for Linux drivers I spent two looking for Windows ones a couple years prior.