Ubuntu On The Surface Pro

Very recently I picked up a deeply discounted Surface Pro tablet. I've been waffling about this decision for a while; but ultimately I pulled the trigger and I'm not at all sorry I did so! I've been greatly impressed by this piece of kit for a while, though I've had just one problem with it: as a Linux user, Windows 8 is not my cup of tea. I decided to see how hard it would be to get a usable Linux distro onto this device as a dual-boot option. As it turned out, there was plenty of information about how to go about doing this, but most of the information was a little bit out of date or didn't explain various parts of the process. After getting from start to finish and winding up with a working dual-boot Surface Pro, I thought I'd write up what I did to have all the steps in one place.

Please take note: I offer no guarantee that this process will work. It will probably work; but if it doesn't, I take no responsibility for the failure. When you're hacking on hardware you do have to accept that there's a bit of risk involved. Make backups, make sure you have recovery USB drives (see below) and make sure you're happy to experiment and get your hands dirty while doing something awesome with your Pro.

( On with the install! )