I quit Windows! I am currently running Linux as my main operating system for my desktop now as of a few days ago. I'm slowly but surely getting settled in and things are great. I botched my Windows install when trying to setup dual boot so it actually forced me to stay with Linux as even reinstalling windows did not work. I will probably install it on a separate drive and use the bios to choose what OS to boot into, for when I want to play games, mostly. I have to say I'm quite impressed with Linux on the desktop. They've come a long way since the last time I tried it. I'm running Xubuntu 12.04.
I do game a bit (UT3 at the moment) but I will probably try a VM, if that does not work out, I'll get another SSD and dual boot via bios. I tried a straight dual boot, but it's a PITA and not worth the hassle, but with a separate drive it should be easier. Idealy I'll probably use the VM for most other stuff like specialized apps (ex: autocad) and the dual boot for gaming so I can directly access my video hardware.
once i also decided to quit windows... But if you are a gamer you will come back... oh yes you will ! Just do like me : Virtual machine for daily use , native windows for gaming !
Yeah I have a windows 7 as a secondary dual boot option for games, but everything else like coding and what not, I do in Linux. Only thing I'm finding hard right now is image editing. I miss photoshop 7. It seems to be the best editor out there. Even the newer photoshop I was not that fond of, 7 is just perfect. Gimp is lacking lot of features such as text formatting, so it's tough but guess once I get the hang of it and find other ways of doing stuff I'll be ok.
One bit of good news: Valve is currently working on getting their Linux client finished, and when it launches they'll likely have some if not all of their games available for Linux. Other devs will likely follow suit like they have with the Mac client; not everything on Steam is available for Mac, but an ever-increasing number of games are being released that support both. And most games that work on both allow you to buy it once and install on both systems, so the same will probably hold true with Linux.
Yes I heard this. That will be awesome if it works out. As much as I never been a fan of having to use a tool just to play a game, if it's what it takes to bring more games to Linux, then it's better than nothing.