I'm not a first hand expert in this, but a highly accomplished friend who is, holds the solid opinion that modern Linux (with "WINE" of course - a free, trivial

I'm not a first hand expert in this, but a highly accomplished friend who is, holds the solid opinion that modern Linux (with "WINE" of course - a free, trivial install) is, ironically!, better at running old Windows software than modern Windows is. And in my limited experience, I agree. Your driver issue might be a dealbreaker, depending upon what they are, and how important that thing is to you, when weighed up against the long term burden of Windows everyday inefficiencies and limitations. I can only echo what some others are saying when they recommend Linux. Most of us have ultimately found that the more efficient computing life lies there. Life is indeed better when you don't have the constant micro-anxieties of bloat and malware and commercials and $costs accompanying your every computing minute, and for me personally, if all I had to do to get that was to change a hardware device or two (to something suitably driver-compatible), and eschew the once-in-a-blue-moon running of old MS CDs on actual Windows (and use WINE instead, which, as mentioned, may actually do it better), then I'd find it a pretty easy calculation.