Microsoft wouldn't have their way if consumers weren't so docile.

The question was how to avoid, not how to use it. The answer is simple - ditch Windows. Otherwise you'll be forced to use the version MS wants you to use.

I'm fairly certain the reason many people don't ditch Windows is that many hardware manufacturers make stuff with Windows in mind -- I had to play around with a number of BIOS settings on my latest PC (custom build, not off-shelf) just to get everything working.

Now, I don't mind a bit of research and work to get the PC I want, but many people just want to plug it in and have it work, but until more hardware manufacturers start paying greater attention to alternate OS installations, it seems that Linux users will have to jump through, at least, a few hoops.

Unless you are using some obscure laptop, or some low quality motherboard, Linux doesn't have such problems anymore. Major motherboard makers like Asus and others support Linux well these days.

A caveat to those benchmarks is that they're run on a Nvidia GPU, and to date there are no Nvidia GPUs that really do DX12 justice, basically it's going to be 1:1 performance between DX11 and DX12 on Nvida (as the video does demonstrate).

Benchmarks consistently reflect this on all current Nvida GPUs, that they either don't benefit at all from DX12 or perform marginally worse on DX12 compared to DX11.

Never used Gigabyte, but high end Asus motherboards tend to work OK. Never had such kind of issues.

LOL someone doesn't like Win10. I was skeptical at first but I haven't really had any problems with it, even with older games.

There's absolutely no reason to ever ditch Windows 10 at all.

dunno, in my experience the introduction of Secure Boot and UEFI (and FastBoot/QuickBoot/FastStartup and whatnot) in recent years created lots of new problems when installing Linux alongside an existing Windows installation.
especially on laptops that can still give you some headaches.

but then, you could argue that just the act of installing a new OS, instead of using the pre-installed one, might scare off a less technical inclined person anyway :)

Yes, if you want to dualboot, and Windows attempts to require "secure boot", it becomes a mess. In such case avoid dual booting and just run Windows in VM with Linux as a single host OS. Then amount of that mess will quickly drop to minimum.

ITT Linux fags really have no shame and keep spreading false info.

^ this guy seems a reliable individual, trust him.. XD

I want to thank everyone for their responses, I really APPRECIATE the insight.

OP:
That is up to you what you want to do. I have been running Windows 10 for quite sometime and I love it. The RAM/Memory management under Windows 10 is huge improvement over the previous versions of Windows. I am finding that I do not have to restart my Laptop as often as I used to. Here is what I would do before upgrading. I would go through your list of your GOG games and see if you have any older titles that would run under Windows 10 no issues at all. But if you have that one game that you really want to play and Windows 10 does not support it then Linux maybe your answer with various programs such as Play on Linux, WINE, and Crossover which allows you to run your Windows games under Linux. Yes there are Linux versions of these games out there on GOG.