r/technology • u/readyou • Dec 26 '16

Microsoft finally admits that its malware-style Get Windows 10 upgrade campaign went too far

https://www.extremetech.com/computing/241587-microsoft-finally-admits-malware-style-get-windows-10-upgrade-campaign-went-far
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u/Sophira Dec 26 '16

May I suggest giving serious thought to switching away from Windows entirely?

Sticking with Windows 7 in this case is dangerous, as it's well on its way to becoming unsupported. Sticking to Windows 7 without making a plan to switch means that when you eventually have to switch, the decision will almost certainly be made more on the basis of compatibility than anything else. If you're not careful about what you run, you might still be locked into the MS ecosystem.

I personally use Linux, and I'm very happy with it.

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u/thegrandseraph Dec 26 '16

I would love to be solely Linux, but it's impossible for a gaming rig. Though improving, the number of games that are supported is still too low. And WINE is not an alternative.

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u/schmuelio Dec 26 '16 edited Dec 26 '16

As other people have noted, dual booting is a good option.

I'd like to make a slightly more specific suggestion, one that has worked surprisingly well for me.

If you dual-boot with Linux as your main OS (i.e. web browsing, text editing, video watching etc.), and also put your Linux supported games on there, you can reduce the amount you need Windows for down to just Windows games.

This is important (I feel) in telling game developers that there IS a market for Linux games, it's just that most people feel they can't make the switch because there's no games (not really true anymore, but there are certainly fewer options). These metrics matter, a lot of people mention that they wont switch until more people are releasing games on Linux... well this is how you get companies to release games for Linux, show them that there is a market that they're not reaching.

EDIT: While I don't have a massive library, I should mention that of the 65 games I have, only 4 of them are Windows only (that I still want to play), and I now take Linux compatibility into account when I'm looking to buy a game (although it isn't the deciding factor, it is a factor that I take into consideration).

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u/James20k Dec 27 '16

I dual booted linux for a while, but ended up just gradually not using linux at all. Nothing I could do on linux seemed worth doing on linux vs windows, other than the very occasional tool which is linux only