I usually create a swap file rather than messing about with a separate partition. While you don't strictly NEED swap space if you have enough RAM, it's especially nice to have on a laptop as that's where data from RAM will be stored if you hibernate (in contrast from Windows, which uses separate files for the two functions).

Like others, I suggest Mint since you're new to Linux, which desktop environment you choose is up to you (Mate, Cinnamon, KDE, XFCE) they're all good and very stable. I suggest avoiding "vanilla" Ubuntu, the UI has compatibility issues and it's hardly the user friendly OS some people make it out to be.

Wine for games is very good, has some compatibility issues here and there but believe me, it has improved a lot over the years. However there's one small detail to watch out for, normal Wine doesn't have CSMT (Command Stream Multi Threading). Wine-Staging (a modified Wine) has CSMT and can double the performance in games, once you've had a taste of it, I doubt you will go back to normal Wine. You can refer to this link for the said program: http://www.wine-staging.com/ (there are also Ubuntu/Mint ready builds).

As for your partitions questions: My OS partition which holds only the OS files and the programs is only 50gb Large with 43GB of it is still free. Your OS will probably never exceed 25GB even if you install a lot of dependencies and libraries and if you have enough ram (8GB being the typical in desktop computers) a 2GB swap partition will be fine just in case, my swap area is never accessed for the record.

Okay good to know and this sounds close to what I'd end up doing then as, like you suspected, I'm running 8GB of RAM.

Perfect this is exactly the type of information I needed to know. Creating a discrete (it sounds like /home) partition for installed programs for the purpose of reinstalling the OS and leaving everything else intact was exactly what I wanted to have the option of doing.

Which brings up another question - before when I mentioned my partitions, I was going to have a "Data" partition consisting largely of game installer files and my photos. I saw that you said Linux can have read access, which (assuming there's something that allows me to view the file type on Linux) should cover me as far as picture viewing goes (or if I want my dog as my desktop LOL ;) ). BUT, assuming I keep the "Data" partition as NTFS, will I be able to "copy" the game files (let's assume mostly GoG installers) from the data partition to my /home partition and install them from there?

Does what I'm trying to describe make sense / is it do-able?

Short Answer: Yes.

Long one: Linux can read any Windows partition, including NTFS. You can also apply Linux file permissions on NTFS, back when I double booted I transferred files in this way.

Same here.

The news about Win10 are worring: forced updates\features and horrible privacy policy?!
No way! My next OS should be a safe place completely under my control.

Some say that such features are still optional, even if hidden (wtf?).. but what if MS will decide to block those unsupported methods in the future?
What if I wanted only some security updates and not other things?

I'm still waiting for indeep reviews, before deciding, but.. I'm also expecting some plot twists by MS after 1-2 years.

P.s: mr.Kek, the news site you suggested me has some concerns too about Win10.

Linux can work with NTFS, you'll have no problem reading from or writing data into your Windows partition. The thing is that the relation between Linux and NTFS should preferably be kept to a minimum, they're compatible but NTFS is not the most appropriate file system for working in Linux, use it to pass data between both OSes and bear in mind that some metadata might get lost in the process.

Then Tails Linux is for you. Go for it! :P

ps: live cd/bootable usb is available. You paranoid! :D
edit: just picture yourself playing Defcon or Uplink on it... damn, now you're an invisible guy on both on and offline! :P haha

I see this kind of thread tends to be opened quite regularly lately, so I have a proposition to all Linux GOGlodytes here:
Would you like that we opened a "mega-thread" about the migration from Windows to Linux, that we would all follow, to help the people that would like to do such a migration?
This way, when a new thread about this gets opened we would be able to point the potential future Linux user to the mega-thread where there are good chances that most of his/her questions have already been answered.

I like the idea, always better than getting the same topic on a new thread every week. Stickied too probably, to avoid having it buried.



I suggest this to Win10 users: http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/destroy_windows_10_spying.html :-)

I’ll let the idea mature here some time, and if enough people are motivated to become "regular" helpers in such a thread I’ll open it tomorrow. I’ll then share a link to it both here, and by the chat for people that showed their interest in it.

Also, they usually post cryptographic checksums and signatures so you can verify that the image came from them and did not get corrupted on transfer.

I use 'quote' tags as a fallback solution, but it’s clearly suboptimal and does not provide the readability of 'code' tags. (especially for multi-lines code)
I opened a wishlist entry asking for the inclusion of 'code' tags, please vote for it and share it around:
https://www.gog.com/wishlist/site/add_a_code_tag_to_the_forum
If it gets enough votes to show a real interest, I’ll follow it up to GOG support.

So I checked out the Mint link - Cinnamon, Xfce, KDE or MATE?

Given what I've written up so far, what's a good one for me to jump in with? I'm going to be trying out running it from the CD for an evening or two and I'd like to start off tonight.

Is there any of these that are easy for me to avoid or one that stands out above the rest? (Again, given what I've written / asked about so far). I'd rather not try all four and judge for myself just yet LOL. Once I get a better feel for what I like / don't like / need from the OS I'd be open to revisiting it later, but for now I wouldn't mind a solid nudge toward one or two of these with reasons / features for why I should go with it.