Query 1: Switch to what you are comfortable with. Debian tends to me a little more complicated than Mint. But if you don't mind learning something new, or you really want to learn what makes Linux tick, I would say Debian is certainly an easy way to jump in and learn. Because Debian is a rolling release, you won't have to worry about doing fresh upgrades every 6+ months, but this does make Debian slightly more unstable (things break occasionally).southernpride1865 wrote:So, pros/cons on the following:
Query: switch from Win7, stay with Mint, or try/use Debian Whezy?
Query: because these are Windows games, what issues can I expect to encounter with the switch, assuming I decide to make it?
Query: can/shoud I move everything over to an external HDD and run it via an emulator? And yes, I believe I understand that Wine Is Not an Emulator, but what the heck IS it, and would/will it work in this circumstance? Or should I look into something else? And would this, in essense, be just a stupid way of doing a dual boot system to keep my Windows stuff and use Debian for everything else?
Oh yeah, "Query" was my word of the day!
If you're worried about stability, then stick with Mint.
Query 2: It generally depends on the game. Most games are playable when you install them through WINE, and you can check the performance ratings that games get at winehq.com (just type in the game title in the search field, and it will search winehq).
Query 3: Wine (originally an acronym for "Wine Is Not an Emulator") is a compatibility layer capable of running Windows applications on several POSIX-compliant operating systems, such as Linux, Mac OSX, & BSD. Instead of simulating internal Windows logic like a virtual machine or emulator, Wine translates Windows API calls into POSIX calls on-the-fly, eliminating the performance and memory penalties of other methods and allowing you to cleanly integrate Windows applications into your desktop.
I would, under no circumstances, advise you to use Win7 because I'm a Linux-purist.
I also don't like advising dual-booting, because it can get ugly at times (Windows loves overwriting the bootloader during innocent sounding updates). If you dual-boot, you may at times feel like two OS'es are having a tug-of-war with your computer stuck right in the middle.
An easier option would be to install Mint on the computer, and then install the virtualbox-ose package and install Windows on the VirtualBox. Then, any games that don't work through Wine, you can install in the Windows Virtualbox.
Query was an excellent word of the day!