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Comment by nul_byte | Hacker News Reader

I have a dual boot PC which is Arch Linux and Windows 7.

The Windows 7 machine is only for gaming / steam, I never browse the internet on there and have pretty strict firewall ruleset. To be honest, I would consider upgrading it to 10, but I missed the free window, so I really don't fancy paying for it.

My hope is that by the time that Windows 7 goes EOL, I can delete it and game just on Linux. Either that or I will get a console (as most of my gaming takes place in my living room anyhow, using a steam box).

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Similar here. Mac & Linux for work. Mac for home. I only keep Windows for gaming. In fact, I only recently upgraded to Windows 7 on my gaming computer. XP was working fine, but for DirectX 10 compatibility (baked into win7 and above, only) I had to upgrade. Were it not for this one "feature", I'd still be happily using XP.

But I've decided that this is the end of the line for me and Microsoft. They lost me forever due to the spyware / monitoring debacle of Win10. If ever there is a technological forced upgrade to 10, then I'm simply out of luck -- no more upgrades past 7. I'm done.

In an interesting twist on the ordinary plot I now code in Windows (picking up C# and want to use standard setup for now) and boot into my Linux machine every time I'm tired and want to play CSGO (often works wonders when I am sleepy) because it seems like I get somewhat better performance from my non-gaming laptop on Linux now .

There's a way to still get a free upgrade to windows 10. You just have to make use of assistive/accessibility software: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgra...

If you DO upgrade to windows 10, I highly recommend installing Classic Shell as one of the first things you do.

It will replace the start menu with one that is actually functional and usable. With it installed, I actually rather quite like Windows 10 now.

http://www.classicshell.net/

You didn't miss any free window, you can still just download the image from Microsoft and upgrade. Upgrade to Windows 10. Windows 7 is archaic, especially for gaming as its primary use.

What are the advances of using 10 instead of 7 for gaming?

You need Windows 10 to use DirectX 12, that's probably the biggest advance. The Windows Display Driver Model is also updated, I don't know if this actually matters for most games though.

> You need Windows 10 to use DirectX 12, that's probably the biggest advance.

More like a threat ;)

Modern drivers, DX12, native xbox one controller support, xbox one integration, background recording, game streaming, not going EOL, FREE.

You can still upgrade to 10 for free if you pretend you need assistive technologies: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/accessibility/windows10upgra...

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