Best Operating System Opinions

[clay85]

Hi i am thinking about building a new rig and was going to choose windows 8 as my operating system.

But then wondered if anyone knew of a better OS for gaming

[Illiad86]

I'd go for Windows 7 64 bit. Windows 8 is terrible. Not so much for gaming, but the interface is meant for tablets/smartphones, all it will do is annoy the heck out of you :P They are bringing back the Start button and "boot to desktop" in a patch later on, but the damage has already been done IMO. I don't see why MS even thought it was a good idea to release Windows 8 for PCs. 7 is stable, plays older (90s-early 00s) games, and has support until 2020.

[Thor.]

I suggest get the 64bit OEM pro edition, a lot cheaper that way and not to mention the best version for gaming in general.

 

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=5213934&CatId=4622

Edited August 22, 2013 by Thor.

[clay85]

so stick wih windows in general but 7

no linux ubunto okay thanks guys

[Thor.]

Linux is a good back up OS if something goes wrong, use it as a secondary OS if you know how..

Edited April 30, 2013 by Thor.

[Illiad86]

Yeah, Linux is good for backup. Most games don't run in it natively, you have to use Wine or just boot to good old Windows to play a lot of games.

[Vagrant0]

I'd go for Windows 7 64 bit. Windows 8 is terrible. Not so much for gaming, but the interface is meant for tablets/smartphones, all it will do is annoy the heck out of you :P They are bringing back the Start button and "boot to desktop" in a patch later on, but the damage has already been done IMO. I don't see why MS even thought it was a good idea to release Windows 8 for PCs. 7 is stable, plays older (90s-early 00s) games, and has support until 2020.

This is Microsoft we're talking about here. Most of their continual effort is towards royally screwing over any and all interfaces they have every 4 years. I kinda saw this coming when they started pushing their "ribbon" style menu bar for many business applications. I don't want a word processor to suggest menu options based on whatever I clicked on last, I want ALL the damn options, ALL THE TIME so that I can find what I want.

 

Using Win 7 now, but will probably just use some version of Linux in the future and just learn to code, or download anything that is lacking.

[Werne]

For gaming, I'd say 64-bit Windows 7, it's the most used OS for gaming and it has decent support. It's still expensive as hell though. If you really want to get Win8, wait a year or so and get it then, it'll be cheaper and Microsoft will iron out most of the unstable crap. I don't suggest Win8 though, it's ugly and a bit hard to get used to, that Metro crap is also useless and a bit awkward to use, unless you intend to use it on a tablet or something.

 

Also, as Thor and Illiad mentioned, you might want to get Linux as a backup OS. In case anything goes wrong with Windows you can still access and move your data. Mint 13 is "good" and it seems it's pretty easy to install nowadays. Just don't expect to play games on it, there are a few decent native games but running ones for Windows might cause headaches, nausea, excessive sweating, nervousness and diarrhea.

[Vecna6667]

I currently use windows 7 for gaming and anything iTunes related, and I use Fedora(after installing EasyLife and rpmfusions) for almost everything else.

 

Edit: In case you decide on Windows 8, here is an article for you to check out. It is a couple programs that you can use to get rid of Windows 8 style UI and use the desktop.

 

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/stardock_start8_vs_classic_shell2013?page=0,1

Edited May 6, 2013 by Vecna6667

[JimboUK]

If you don't have a touchscreen then Windows 7, Windows 8 is a monstrosity.