As usual, I’m a little late to the party on this, but as it turns out I have close, personal, recent experience that intersects with much of what has been said here. For all of those who insist that the switch to Windows 10 is painless and without drama; I beg to differ.
I have often pleaded with people here to give Linux a chance as I have lived almost exclusively in the Linux world for over a dozen years. I do however have a Lenovo G50 laptop that came with Windows 10 that I bought 5 or 6 years ago. I immediately turned it into a dual boot (Windows – Linux Mint) and it was intended for my wife’s daily use, but she so hated the keyboard that we soon bought her a used iMac, installed Linux Mint, and never looked back. The Lenovo now lives most of its life in the closet relegated to emergency back-up duties and for those extremely rare instances where I absolutely, positively MUST use Windows to accomplish a given task.
I had such a need about 2 weeks ago. I use the term “need” loosely as I was really only interested in making a Neverware / Cloudready installation USB, and this is only possible using Windows – at least, as far as I know. Anyway, I drug out the old Lenovo and fired up the Windows side. Now mind you, I had cleverly avoided any updates on this machine as during the little bit of time I had spent in Windows on this machine had been under close monitoring by me and I was always able to delay them. But this time I booted it up and walked away for a while, and when I returned Bill Gates knowing so much better what’s good for me than I do, had assumed complete control of my computer and initiated an update. When it was finished, I was left with a Windows machine with no functioning wifi. I depend on this as it is very inconvenient for me to take this to the one place in the house that has an ethernet connection. Besides all that, it had been working perfectly just a short time earlier!
The first thing I did was shut it down and try the wifi on the Linux side of the box. No problems there, the thing was working perfectly on the same internal wireless card that Windows refused to play with. Next, I tried everyone of a handful of wireless USB dongles I’ve bought over the years. I’ve had Linux distros in the past that would ignore the internal wireless card, but none that would refuse to work with one of these external dongles. But Windows did. I drug the laptop to the ethernet connection and hooked it up – worked fine. Just no wifi.
I then did what everyone else does; I went on a 2-week search of every website or discussion forum I could find that addressed this problem. I tried every point-and-click remedy I could find. I tried the self diagnosis tool. It said “Couldn’t solve the problem”. Didn’t say it couldn’t find one, just that it couldn’t solve it, and it didn’t tell me what it was. Of course my research turned up pages of people complaining about the same or similar problems after an update. There were tons of power shell commands suggested, some with restarts suggested in between, and I tried them all with no results. I tried to update the driver and was told it was already up to date. I tried regressing to an earlier driver...no soap. I have ordered a wireless dongle on Amazon that claims to be plug-n-play with Windows 10. I’m not holding my breath. At this point, I’ve just about run out of ideas and energy to fix a problem in a computer that I almost never use. When I absolutely have to use Windows, I can drag this box over to the ethernet, do what I need to do, and put it away again for another 6-12 months. Or, I can fire up the Linux side of the same box and rock-n-roll with no problems.
I honestly don’t know how you poor schmucks who are convinced that you are chained at the ankle to this operating system can abide by it. And as providence would have it, just today a story broke on the news that there is a big, gaping, security breach recently discovered in Windows 10. For all of you successfully using Windows 10 that are telling everyone else that they won’t have any problems...how dare you? You have no way of knowing that! For all of you who haven’t yet made the switch...Beware! If you switch and have the same problem I did or a similar one and aren’t able to fix it yourself, to whom will you turn? “Computers is Us”? At what cost? And how long before you have to pay them again? This all reinforces what I’ve said for years: “Windows is something easily looked through, easily broken, and expensive to repair.”
I will make my pitch yet one more time. I know some of the people reading here are no computer scientists. Neither am I. I sincerely doubt that that many of the people who use computers here DON’T have a smart phone. Android or iPhone, no matter – you learned to use it. Was it a little intimidating at first? Of course. Was there a learning curve? Yes. Did it get easier over time, maybe even a little more quickly than you thought? Yes. Learning to use Linux is absolutely no tougher than that. In fact, I would argue that it is easier to switch from Windows to Linux than it is to switch from Windows to Mac. I’ve done that and I feel qualified to say so. I still favor Linux Mint as I believe it to be the easiest transition, but any of the Ubuntu based “flavors” should be fine. You can do a “dual boot” and keep your Windows 7 installed for those proprietary “Windows only” tasks. The auto installer in any of the Ubuntu based Linux flavors will simply ask you if you want to install Linux next to Windows. Simply choose that and all the partitioning will be done automatically. You will have a small boot menu at start-up that will show Linux at the top, but will show Windows farther down the list. Simply tap the down arrow key to highlight Windows, hit “Enter” and you’re right back in your Windows machine.
I know the description of the task of downloading and “burning” the Linux iso image to a DVD or USB can be intimidating, so why not just take all the drama out of it? Shown here is a site where you can purchase a bootable Linux distro on either a DVD or USB:
https://www.ebay.com/i/283715440686?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-117182-37290-0&mkcid=2&itemid=283715440686&targetid=537215870608&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=1023726&poi=&campaignid=6470648147&mkgroupid=74956728902&rlsatarget=pla-537215870608&abcId=1139336&merchantid=6296724&gclid=CjwKCAiA6vXwBRBKEiwAYE7iS7fuPXz6pYXxDakHF0W0r6eT9oDmopfjSiSWoZ8fSRQIcrPqxO9QvhoCUQEQAvD_BwE
This is exactly how I started! If you have a DVD drive, the disks are less expensive and will work just as well. Some laptops no longer come with optical drives, so there a USB will be required. There are several versions shown of Linux Mint and Zorin which is also very good for Windows refugees. The “Cinnamon” desktop is great for computers with a lot of speed and memory, the “XFCE” version should be chosen for older computers or ones with more modest specs. This site is just an example of many others where you can buy ready to install Linux Distros. Get your “Google on” and take a look. Keep in mind, these are “Live” distros that (unlike Windows) allow you to boot up and try them on for size before you install. Are you really going to tell me that you’ve paid hundreds of dollars over the years for Windows and you can’t or won’t pay just a couple of dollars to try Linux? If you won’t help yourself then no one else can either! What do you have to lose?
I am using Windows 7 and I don't want to upgrade to Windows 10. What are my choices? Could I go to an Apple Mac [or] tablet to do my banking and other sensitive stuff and keep Windows 7 on my 2-year-old HP computer for doing other things? Any concern or risk for me continuing to use Windows 7? Thank you.
--Submitted by Jack K.

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic