How about you upgrade to Windows 10? I don't like the fact that you had the guts to call the almighty Windows 8 a filthy horrible OS, but I'll just go along. You never mentioned anything about upgrading to the latest and greatest in Windows, yet. Windows 7 looks and operates in a so dated manner, and soon I won't even tolerate using it much alike my recent usage of Windows XP, lol.

Otherwise, if I follow your game's rules, stick with Windows for gaming and work. There is no point in gaming on Linux if you have Windows at the same time, especially on a dual boot system, with Windows still having a smashing majority of the games when compared to Linux. And that is without having to wrap your games around WINE in Linux before playing them, and Windows is the only way to install GOG Galaxy yet.

So its either Windows 10 if you'd actually break the rules you put on yourself, or just stick to Windows 7 if you wanna play by your game's rules. Are you a rulebreaker or do you obey the law? ;)

Depends really on the types of games you play. Framerate wise Linux is worse. Compatibilitywise Windows 7 is much better than 10. But you can play a lot of games on linux too either natively or via Wine.

Thats what you should answer to yourself.
I work and game on Linux due to culture behind Linux - Free Software (not "free software" aka "freeware"), due to community, because I save a lot of time and trouble, because I am done with MS. This is not necessary how it might end for you, you have your own priorities. Technologically, Linux supports much more games than Windows, because it runs 70-80% of all windows games. Still, some of my friends work and game on Windows - and have no Linux, this is their choice.

I play native Linux games; if they are Windows only and no ports - then I run them in PlayOnLinux, chosing best Wine version - I then compress the wine profile into archive, I just need to unpack it afterwards and play - no installation. If they are DOS, I extract them with Wine then repack them, I use DosBox GameLauncher for Dos titles. Btw, my gaming hardware is AMD, with Nvidia there is even more "fps" ;)

However, if GOG patches stuff or someone releases compatibility patches or open ports/rewrites - then it runs on Windows. The more the choice - the better. Funny enough, MS never wanted or wants to give anyone any choice, but thats another story. You don't loose a leg for using this or that OS, there are no correct answers - only that you like. Yes.

Yes, the reason I didn't go for Windows 10 (aside from some horrible privacy issues) is that it isn't compatible with half the stuff I need to do. Windows 10 never even entered the picture... So the reason to game on linux is ideological?

No,.. ideology produces some result. I use the result and like ideology, not vice versa; its my cup of tea. Let me write OSes that I used for quite long period of time (over 1 years).
MSDOS 5.0, 6.22, Win 3.11, 95, 95 OSR2, 98SE, ME, 2k, XP, Vista, Sun Solaris, Linux Ubuntu 8.04-10.04, Debian (few releases), Linux Mint, Linux Mint Debian Edition, Gentoo, Funtoo, Calculate, Archlinux, Suse, Manjaro, Sparky Linux, SolydK, SolydX. Currently, all my machines ended up being Debian / SolydXK.
If you have fun to walk away and explore, do it. If you don't want to, don't. Choice is good, MS does not like anyone too (but thats understandable, for monopoly) ;)

it's still the same game under linux, the fun factor is the same :p
there is no technical factor that makes a game better under linux (in general).

exception:
if you have some older title using early DirectX/DirectDraw versions and you have compatibility problems under windows.
Then it may be worth trying to run the game under WINE on linux.

As a Windows 10 user, may I ask about what makes up the half of the stuff that you need to do that you can't on Windows 10 because of compatibility issues?

But yeah, you're still looking at a few amount of Linux games, and even then, most of them would have Windows versions to begin with. Oh, and something I didn't ask before. Do you use Windows or Linux more?

Mostly hardware stuff related to research that hasn't got support for Windows 10 yet. While I've got a Windows 7 desktop at home, I've been on my old laptop most of the time otherwise (university student) which is Linux. While it is still perfectly functional, it is 6 years old, and I needed something with better specs, so I figured I'd get my laptop for the next 6 years.
Which is where this all came from.

I personally like using Linux, but not for games.
The exception would be older games that do not work on newer Windows but they work on WINE.
But, at least for me, Windows is the way to go.

So you're more Linux than Windows I see. Also I see, the hardware maker didn't release drivers for Windows 10? Hate when that happens, and I'm gad I wasn't part of it this time on my Lenovo Z50-70.

In this case, just game on Linux if you use Linux more, and have Windows for those games that didn't see Linux. You'd hate switching between OSes just to play games or use Linux. Also if you do have the storage, you can keep a Windows and a Linux copy of the same game I guess, and if they share the save file format, guess you'll be able to keep your progress around OSes. Haven't tried it but it would be cool if that actually works as expected.

Considering that practically all games are made for Windows first and all other OS second I would go with Windows 7. It is also more likely that you will find a solution online if you encounter a problem with the game.

PS: "Windows 8 is a filthy horrible thing" made me LOL. :)

_Using a less demanding OS means more resources will be free for the game usage, and it’s far easier to build a light OS based on Linux than Windows. (comparison done during Windows XP era, things might have gone better on Microsoft side since then)
EDIT: There are disagreements about this point. See and [url=https://www.gog.com/forum/general/im_osically_conflicted/post40]here.
_Compatibility with old Windows games is usually better on Linux via WINE than on recent Windows versions.
_If you already use Windows for work, it is easier to stay focused on said work when you know you can’t start any game unless you reboot on Linux first ;)

Now I’d like to return the question: is there any point in gaming on WIndows?
(that’s not as sarcastic as it may sound, I’ve been gaming exclusively on Linux for the last ten years or so and I might not know about some recent Windows features)

Hahah! I love this reason. Might just stick to Linux and justify it like that :D.

As for your question, gaming on Linux is more about having more of the modern games easily available, I guess.

I guess you meant Windows and not Linux here?
In that case you’re absolutely right! As someone who is never interested in so-called "AAA" games, it’s a point I often forget.