I have a Dell Optiplex 7040 SFF currently running Windows 10 Pro x64, Intel Core i5 6500 @ 3.20GHz, Intel HD Graphics 530, and 16gb RAM. However I am thinking of installing Linux Mint in a dual boot. The idea is to use Linux for Dolphin gaming (and possibly light internet browsing) and Windows for strictly offline use for resource heavy Windows software I use. Is this a good idea? I've always been curious about trying Linux and am also wondering if the Dolphin performance might be better with Linux over Windows?
Considering that you're using Intel graphics, the answer should be a major "yes" that using Linux instead is a good idea.
This is because Intel's Windows drivers are the worst of the 3 graphics vendors, yet their Linux drivers are actually the
best. My friend's Sandy Bridge laptop was running the OpenGL-powered Eduke32 at a whopping 1 (one!) frame per second, and simply using Linux Mint on the exact same hardware instead brought it up to like 40fps.
Also, as a side bonus, if you have any interest in using the official 1st party GameCube USB adapter, it's
stupid simple to get working in Linux compared to Windows as it's nothing more than creating a new text file in a specific location and pasting the according text into the aforementioned text file.
So I know you need to replace the Bluetooth dongle driver to "LibusbK" with Zadig when using the "Passthrough a Bluetooth adapter" option in Windows. I gather that's not required in Linux? Do you just add the udev rule specified in the 'Setting Up' instructions and then it should work?