There is a mac version of MS office. On Linux, we usually use wine (a compatibility program to run windows app. This is what we use to play windows games on linux) to run MS Office, but the result is not satisfying. Display is a little bit off resulting in formatting usually goes wrong when the file is opened with windows version of office.

Don't take me wrong. I don't discourage you to give Linux a try. I just remind you to be wise, if you still have a use with Windows, don't nuke it :)

btw, no. app won't run in any OS. A mac application won't run on windows unless get ported (usually developer target multiplatform, and make his software available by providing binaries for each OS). Safari, OSX default browser is made available for Windows a few years ago. But I'm not aware Linux version is available. Running windows application on Mac and Linux is a bit easier because of wine (yes, there is wine for Mac). It is application from Linux that usually easier to port because most of the source code is openly available and they use open standard.

Thank you once again for your generous offer. It was a good selection. Here are my picks:

Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion Ultimate Edition
Kerbal Space Program
Aragami
Dragon Age: Origins - Ultimate Edition
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Satellite Reign
Star Ruler 2 + Wake of the Heralds
Shadowrun: Hong Kong
Oddworld pack
The Saboteur
Hard West Collector's Edition + Scars of Freedom
Invisible Inc. + Contingency Plan
Transistor
Tales from the Borderlands
The Wolf Among Us
Octodad: Dadliest Catch
Shadowrun Returns
Anno pack
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum!

You can create a live cd/usb with Linux. This allows you to demo/try out Linux os you put on it before you ACTUALLY install it. Here is steps to create a live usb/cd on Windows for Ubuntu, and this should work for other Linux variants too:
https://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/create-a-usb-stick-on-windows

Well said! It is for these very reasons that the wife and I are finally making the switch and building new PC's with Mint for our holidays. :) As a pair of old gamers, it was the games that kept us from switching earlier - but now it seems like gaming in Linux has really caught up. The plan has been to run Mint with Windows VM for games that don't do Linux (Skyrim), but now it seems those games will be fewer than we thought. Your long list surprised us and includes several games we own. I've also taken note of suggestions/sites you and others here have referenced and may have a few questions after we're set up if you don't mind. It's great to see the support among GOG Linux players here.

Thank you for this post, and the very generous give-away drawing attention to Linux being a viable alternative for gamers. It has definitely encouraged us that our decision to switch this year is sound and we're looking forward to it more than ever!

Games we would like to put in for:
Tyranny - Commander Edition
Titan Quest - Anniversary Edition
Icewind Dale Enhanced Edition
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion Ultimate Edition
Dungeons 2 + DLC (A Chance of Dragons, A Song of Sand and Fire, A Game of Winter)
Thief Pack (Thief Gold, Thief II: The Metal Age, Thief III: Deadly Shadows)
Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Platinum!

It may get even better. Certainly the conditions are there but it's not good to think of how far Microsoft would go to stop Linux migrations. With Khronos group having developed a new graphics api (Vulkan), one that rivals D3D (Windows), more games will become less troublesome for developers (third party or not) to port games to Linux. Vulkan is crossplatform where as D3D is not. The api has definitely scared Microsoft. One could argue that D3D12, new api that Microsoft boasts so much about, emerged so soon because of Vulkan. As result it seems they have been doing corporate decisions to "stop" Vulkan.

If you have modest interest in seeing Linux and Mac gaming flourish you'd be smart to keep an eye out for significant Vulkan news. If I didn't know better I would say it's best for gaming in general.

Here is a video about Vulkan:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvioALNs_Bc

Is this real life?
What a crazy giveaway, adamhm!
I'm surely in for one of these:

1- Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition
2- Pillars of Eternity: Hero Edition + Expansion Pass
3- Dungeons 2 + DLCs
4- Tyranny - Commander Edition
5- The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut
6- Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion Ultimate Edition

Huh. Shows how much I know about technology.
Thanks for the info!

@ZeroDrm Thank you for the info. I had thought that Vulkan was AMD GPUs only seeing how it started as Mantle. Now I see that it has grown into so much more. I will definately keep a watch on it. Thanks!

The more I learn the more I am hopeful that Linux will be our primary OS with Window confined to a sandbox that we visit only when we must.

I'm actually not on Linux but regardless of that I believe if you're a gamer and you want D3D to prevail over Vulkan then you're simply making the medium which you claim to care about less acessible and of lower quality. If Vulkan becomes more significant, i.e being used for many games, it will increase the chance of developers extending their games to Linux and Mac. I'm positive it will have benefits for consoles too, provided they decide to use Vulkan.

Just think about this fact: DX12 (which has D3D12) works/supports ONLY Windows 10. It doesn't support XP, 7 nor 8.1.
Vulkan supports Linux, Android, Mac, Windows XP to 10.
So why would you as a gamer, even if you are on Windows, show love for an api that locks you and rest of your fellow gamers to a single OS when you have a equal if not better api that doesn't chain you?

The more of us (gamers) who are informed of D3D12 vs Vulkan the better.

I was long time on fence regarding Linux, but now with Windows 10 and possibility of subscription based license for Microsoft operating systems, I am almost convicted to move to Linux. I will try Mint and hopefully will not run into many capability problems.
I would like to 'be in' for one of the games below. Thank you for running this giveaway and great Linux guide.

Wasteland 2 Director's Cut Digital Classic Edition
Satellite Reign
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion Ultimate Edition
Shovel Knight
Doom
Ultimate General: Gettysburg

Thank you very much adamhm! Sometimes we really need a push to the right direction.
I enjoyed the ga and the detailed guide last time. At that time, I set up a pc with Linux Mint and experimented a lot on it.
And that became very usefull the last week, when I had to rescue a FreeNAS server at work with 6TB of data.
At the very least I now know what "fsck" does and how to use it!

And a second big thank you is in order for the HUGE list of games you are giving away.
I'd like to be in for
-"Invisible Inc. + Contingency Plan "
-"Satellite Reign"
-"Dungeons 2"
-"Divinity: Original Sin"
-"Starbound"
-"Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion Ultimate Edition "

Thank you for the giveaway, I'm not in because regional pricing works in my favor so I'd feel dirty redeeming a CN gift code, but I figure I might as well ask here:

how do I install python 3.5 and IDLE on Mint (3.4 won't do, for "reasons")? I'm on Rebecca 32bit if it matters.

Thank you for this giveaway and also thank you for bringing people out of the woodwork who are interested in Linux. I'm currently enrolled in a Linux class in college and we use Linux Mint in class regularly. I didn't know much about Linux until this year, but now I really enjoy what it can do. I've just installed Linux Mint on my dad's old computer, but I'm now thinking Anti X might work better on his really old system.

I'm also planning on installing Linux Mint on a Windows XP laptop as well. Did you know Android is based on Linux, so a lot of people use Linux without even knowing it? Super cool!

I'd really appreciate any tips and tricks and guides about Linux anyone can offer. I will definitely check out your suggested Linux links and guides everyone has posted here. Thank you for doing this!

I'm in for one of the following (in order of preference):

Starbound
Epistory - Typing Chronicles
Homeworld Remastered Collection
Freedom Force Pack (Freedom Force, Freedom Force vs. The 3rd Reich)
FTL: Advanced Edition
Mount & Blade: Warband + Napoleonic Wars + Viking Conquest (have the base game, would love to play an exp.)
Sid Meier's Pirates!
Octodad: Dadliest Catch

Nice giveaway again. And thanks for testing so many games in wine, adam.

Unfortunately I'll be looking into installing OpenBSD on my laptop again because I need to get stuff done and I'm sick of dealing with Linux. Meanwhile, I can keep playing games on my desktop.

I'm in fur Mirror's Edge and Dex.

Thanks for the giveaway adamhm! I'm in for:

Pillars of Eternity: Hero Edition + The White March - Expansion Pass
Divinity: Original Sin - Enhanced Edition
Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines
Titan Quest - Anniversary Edition
Tyranny - Commander Edition
Victor Vran
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing: Final Cut
Lords of Xulima Deluxe Edition
Dreamfall Chapters Season Pass - Special Edition
Vampire: The Masquerade - Redemption
I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream
Indiana Jones and the Emperor's Tomb