What is the best OS option for my situation?

[Silver Wolf]

I am trying to find the best OS for myself. I do not have much money so free (linux) is positive on that side, however I do like to play the occasional game (Mechwarrior Online is the most hardcore game I play) and I run office applications. I would like to get into video and photo editing/rendering/etc but have not yet gotten there. I run 16 gb ddr3 pc 1333 RAM, a i5-3470 CPU, MSI B75 chipset (B75ma-g43 - military III not gaming), and an AMD Radeon R7 250 2gb video card (ddr3 not ddr5). What suggestions do you have for OS? I did not like Windows 8 when it came out, I am running Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit right now which I like but it is getting older. I am familiar with Linux enough that I know the basics and am not afraid to try new stuff with it... For this type of system and purpose, what is the best OS to use?

 

[Mciahel]

If you want to get into production type programs stick with Windows. I don't think there is enough Linux support out there right now. Kinda like Mac's earlier years.

IMO Win7 is the best OS out there right now, with by far the most support. It is also going to be support for quite some time so I'd just stick with it.

:^)

 

[stillblue]

Why not both? You keep your windows and then download Ubuntu or Mint and dual or triple boot your system. Once windows is on the installation of the others is a snap and since they are free you aren't out anything but a little time.

 

[Silver Wolf]

Windows 7 vs Windows 8.1? Which would you recommend?

Linux - I have run Ubuntu several times since version 7.10. It has grown a lot - I however do not like Unity or the new way of running the menu (looks too much like Windows 8 tiles which I do not like - I find the tiles of Windows 8 annoying, however I have not looked into 8.1 much nor run it at all).

I want the most efficient and compatible set up. Though my system is already somewhat outdated I would like to keep it as advanced as possible within reasonable limits.

I would dual boot but for the boot drive I have a 160 gb (149ish in reality) SSD - with less than 30% free with Windows and some core installs going. I also have a 500 gb standard hard drive that is almost always pushing 60-70% filled... I am looking to upgrade but waiting on the 3 TB drives to drop in price.

 

[Mciahel]

Windows 7 vs Windows 8.1? Which would you recommend?

Linux - I have run Ubuntu several times since version 7.10. It has grown a lot - I however do not like Unity or the new way of running the menu (looks too much like Windows 8 tiles which I do not like - I find the tiles of Windows 8 annoying, however I have not looked into 8.1 much nor run it at all).

I want the most efficient and compatible set up. Though my system is already somewhat outdated I would like to keep it as advanced as possible within reasonable limits.

I would dual boot but for the boot drive I have a 160 gb (149ish in reality) SSD - with less than 30% free with Windows and some core installs going. I also have a 500 gb standard hard drive that is almost always pushing 60-70% filled... I am looking to upgrade but waiting on the 3 TB drives to drop in price.

IMO unless you are doing programming and dev'ing. Just stay with Windows 7. Hate or Love it. Its as stable as they come. Plus it doesn't have those crappy tiles (which I hate too).

The only thing you would get out of going to Win 8 is better RAM management. Even then I don't think its worth the annoying tiles.

 

[Silver Wolf]

I do some basic programming - I have Studio .Net 2013 installed on this machine currently - the one I am thinking of putting the new OS on. I am more interested in stability and reasonably up to date. Most of my parts are designed specificially for Windows 8 and work with 7.

 

[Mciahel]

Most things "Designed for Win 8" mean they take advantage of the low power draw when asleep and again the RAM management as far as I know. There is not much of a performance increase. At least not enough to justify paying for a new OS. Stick with 7 and wait to see if 9 is any good.

 

[stillblue]

If you don't like unity then Mint might be what you want. Mint is based on Ubuntu and uses the same software repositories so up to date it is and the desktop environment is like a cleaned and souped up XP. I never understood why windows menus always make you hunt. Group and alphabetic. I myself am running Ubuntu with the gnome3 desktop and I'm loving it