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adamhm: Unfortunately AMD's graphics drivers are very poor... I got an R7 370 a while ago so I could see what their drivers are like and I'm unimpressed so far. Nvidia's proprietary drivers are *much* better.
While proprietary AMD graphics drivers are really a messy piece of poor software, the open-source drivers on the other hand (radeon and amdgpu) are top quality ;)

The Radeon R7 370 should work well with the open-source radeon driver + some AMD firmware (package 'firnware-linux-nonfree' on Debian Jessie and older, 'firmware-amd-graphics' on Debian Stretch/Sid).
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Tpiom: ...although, there are always troubles when dealing with computers:
* Drivers (using an AMD video card: "gaming R9 380" or whatever) Mint said it couldn't use hardware acceleration at start so I figured the drivers were off. I changed Open Source to Proprietary but they aren't optimal either. It feels a bit slow at times, especially when dealing with YouTube.
* The Cinnamon interface isn't that great. I think the panel is a bit unintuitive, like to open up certain applets you have to click on them and then select "show"
* Wine is outdated as well (1.6.2) and version 1.8.1 (stable) is mentioned on their website.

I suspect Linux Mint 18 will solve many of these issues when packages are updated but it's tough when you're dealing with old packages. I think it's not coming until May-ish (I hope?)
*DRIVERS
i use the open source drivers from the OIBAF ppa, they are way more recent than the ones in the default repo.
they also have gallium_nine already inside so you can get a way better performance with directX 9 games in wine.
if you are interested mind that you need also the patched wine; those are the repositories:
oibaf mesa drivers: [url=https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-drivers]https://launchpad.net/~oibaf/+archive/ubuntu/graphics-drivers[/url]
wine gallium nine: [url=https://launchpad.net/~commendsarnex/+archive/ubuntu/winedri3]https://launchpad.net/~commendsarnex/+archive/ubuntu/winedri3[/url]

if you add the wine repo you should see all wine version in the command line by typhing: apt search wine
then install whatever you want to try (i have wine1.8 gallium nine as my system wine)
i guess playonlinux is mandatory for wine's beginner, expecially if you have a 64bit OS

those 2 guys made a lot of comparisons between the standard wine, wine-staging and wine gallium nine if you are interested.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCh1UanySk_Ht0WRfo4O9STw/videos
https://www.youtube.com/user/davidtecher/videos

tomb raider 2013 bench gave me around 50fps on medium settings with a 5770 + athlon x2 260
you shouldn't have problem with youtube, i don't know..

a good monitor you can install to check your gpu load is RADEONTOP

*INTERFACE
i use mate but i also used Cinnamon some years ago, actually i think mate doesn't look good, i don't like it at all :)
but everything is highly customizable and i actually crafted something that i like, check the screenshot below
basically install a lightweight dock (plank in this case) and move the panel on top, FINISH
it look way better in my opinion, there are many other docks but some are too heavy and full of options that i don't need..

*WINE
you can add the repo that i mentioned before, there is also another command to check the software version and its repo
apt-cache madison APP NAME ( - apt-cache madison wine - in this case)
Attachments:
as for the proprietary driver i suggest you to download the latest available from the AMD website (the 'non specific linux' file) and installing the from the command line in a super easy way (sudo sh ./driverfile.run)
The pros
---
Its extremely modular.
It has quite a philosophy behind, with Linus vs Tannenbaum and Stallman vs UNIX.
It runs on anything very efficiently, does not lock you out.
Its both free and open.
Its free from commercialism. Commercialism should never be touching an OS. No nag-screens, no ads, no cut-offs, no viruses.
Many of its applications are unique, and such is their integration into the system.
The GPL made its ecosystem fully immune to "Cultivate, Lock out, Harvest" strategy. Any prominent software pieces are still fully free and open and can be replaced if they go off the rails. People don't endure it, they fork it.
Usually, its not a "product".


The cons
---
Drivers, the manufacturers should be beaten with a stick. Hardware manufacturers - twice.
While commercial OSes are plagued by malware-esque applications, free OSes tend to be plagued by "student software". Its software, that is half-working, which is dropped from support overnight just-so. If you integrate it into your workflow, prepare for some headache later on.
The "club" is smaller.
Its not a "product".

--


Guys, if you are using PlayOnLinux, be advised that its possible to keep your system Wine-free.

You just install all dependencies, which are required for Wine to function. But you don't install Wine in the system. Then you start PlayOnLinux and install Wine within PlayOnLinux only. This way, you have Wine-less system, which can use any Wine version.
Post edited February 16, 2016 by Lin545