Hi All,
So I am looking at rebuilding my laptop basically because I am sick of Windows 10 crashing constantly and generally been a crappy operating system.
Its nothing super powerful, but I still want to continue gaming on it, generally games like prince of persia, tomb raider, half life 2 (You get the year range) are what ill be playing but I don't know if I should abandon Windows completely and switch to some linux (input would be nice) or go to Windows 7 until EOL.

What are your thoughts?

Many Thanks

I cannot help you much but pointing to the right place:
The "Try Linux" Repost/Rewrite (a "beginner's guide")
Adamhm's Linux Wine Wrappers - News, FAQ & Discussion

Do it, othing to lose but a lot to gain : )

Why not dual boot?

You can set up your system so that, when you boot, you can choose between Windows or Linux. Then, if a game doesn't work on one OS, try running it on the other.

Because of price? It's the worst solution. You'll use Linux, but pay for Windows.

Try a few distros Linux using pendrive and live sessions. There is a great chance that you'd fall in love. Old games work on Linux&Wine even better than on current Windows versions. You'll save a lot of money and also resources, because Linux is in general lighter than Windows. I can't imagine any reason to pay for Windows in situation you've described.

What if you already have a copy of Windows for that laptop; after all, they tend to be sold with Windows.

You can return it. :)

https://www.linux.com/news/how-get-windows-tax-refund

In my opinion if you have a Win7 key you can go with that, otherwise save your money and give Linux a shot (it's free after all). Wine has great compatibility with many games and the ones you mentioned run fine in Wine.

I've recently started Dead Space using Wine, runs great and really enjoying it.

since the OP is talking about converting his existing laptop I doubt he will see any money for his windows license

Your budget and computer-savviness are all important factor. I'm decent with Linux and Unix (use them for work) and I still can't get many games working out mess up settings on Linux. Windows is a lot easier to use.

That said, once you yet Linux, a few things happen. You get better control of your computer, you worry about certain things less, and you find yourself looking for those rate Linux games.

What's great is you can try Linux right now. Get a live usb going today and try it out.

Oh, I thought that was only possible in a few select countries where the law is super strict towards Microsoft. Nice nice but only works for a new computer, which a laptop with the old Windows 7 hardly is.

Good eye. O forgot it was a laptop. Some laptops don't work well with Linux. Tread carefully.

Sorry, misunderstood. went with your "sold with laptops" bit and assumed it was a new purchase.

It's "Lady, I can smell your perfume from across the library" day here at the library. The eyes are a little fuzzy.

Sorry for the confusion.

Well, if we are talking about new purchase, buying laptop with Windows on board does not mean it's for free. I've bought my laptop without Windows - it needed some more effort, but it saved me about 25% of my budget. Cost of license is significant part of laptop's price, especially some low-spec one.

If you already have Windows license it's a different story, but - regarding OP case - I was quite sure that owning Windows 10 (which is a problem) does not allow you to downgrade to Windows 7, which means that we still need to pay to use Win7.

it's not that bad these days. but your approach of grabbing an usb stick and trying it out is probably the best way to go with this.


I probably would also go with making the laptop dual boot. Especially when talking about gaming.
Getting yourself used to Linux will definitely require some time. Having windows available as a backup option when you stumble about some problem in Linux can avoid a lot of early frustration. It gives you the choice to figure things out at your own pace, instead of "I have to solve this problem before I can play my game".

The only downside of dual boot is that you have effectively only half of your hdd size available to each OS. But given that you are only looking at older games anyway that might not be that much of a problem.

Looking back at my own journey/liberation from Windows, I'd recommend this too, even today when distros are much more user friendly. Pretty easy to get frustrated when you have a problem, search for solution online and find 10 different threads with 25 different solutions, with no idea to tell what is best (and often many of them will fail, leading to lots of wasted time).

I'm using Linux Mint (Cinnamon edition) myself, and can't praise it enough really. It simply works out of the 'box', and that is a great thing for people migrating away from Windows. Very easy to test out different distros with liveCDs on a USB-stick, so I would recommend to try this.

For games that don't have native Linux versions, I recommend PlayOnLinux, or alternatively Wine. But the former is easier to get working without needing to fiddle about with console commands and whatnot. PlayOnLinux is essentially a frontend for Wine, and it's easier to handle for new users, plus easier to manage when games for whichever reason need different versions of Wine to work right (as you can easily install each game to their own 'bottle' and run different Wine versions for each).

Good luck. It's a journey well worth making :)