I did it in that way: I installed a second hard drive in my laptop and installed Mint in there. Happy dual boot. But I must say that I knowingly did buy a laptop with an option for a second drive.

I suggest you to check out Linux Mint Cinnamon edition. I have been using it for years without any problems. I also have dual boot with Windows, but I think I will delete Windows soon and use only Linux.

To be honest, I don’t really do much of playing with my computer. I only have dosbox for old games and then couple of other games from software center, which are made for Linux. So I’m not sure how Mint works with new games.

I have used it many years now. Couldn’t be happier. I still have Windows lying on somewhere in the hard drive, but I haven’t booted it for a year or so.

I came here just for advertising Linux Mint once again. 👍

I ditched Windows for a year ago and have been happy user of Linux Mint since then. It’s solid, nice and easy to use. I don’t like much of customization, all I want is easy to use and solid system and Mint with Cinnamon is all that. Years ago I was distro hopping around but now I don’t need that.