Linux

I think Mint is great for beginners and advances users alike.

If you're feeling more confident, you could try Debian. Debian will have older software and be harder to setup, but you'll get a better feel for the Linux ecosystem by using it over Mint.

Manjaro is for practical usage. You'll have more up-to-date software and access to a massive user repository of install scripts for anything that isn't in the official software repositories.

Your choice of Desktop Environment will have a big impact on how you use your computer. I recommend KDE for those coming from Windows. With a small amount of configuration, you can have it set up like a traditional desktop environment with the start menu on the left, show desktop on the right, notifications towards the right, etc.

KDE has a lot of stuff, but you can only choose what you need and you'll notice it's great at being a basic DE even though it's capable of more.

Go for a popular/"beginner" distro (basically mint or fedora or fedoraKDE, or Bazzite for gaming) so you can search up anything you need, and before you install anything test it all out with the live boot disk you created; keep backups and don't be afraid to fuck up, at worst you reinstall and you can script much of the set up process; and do not be afraid of the terminal, learn its secrets, watch a "bash beginner" and "linux terminal beginner" video or a few on youtube and follow along like it's a class, you'll be fine.

That's it, you'll have specific questions later, but for now that's all you need.

Bro you're messing with wine prefixes? You already know more than most and clearly have the motivation and ability to do what you want. You'll go far, just google what you need when you need it like the rest of us :)

I was in your shoes last year, OP.

I first installed Mint (because everyone recommended it as the newbie distro) on a laptop that I took with me on summer vacation, to see if I can do some summer course work and finals on it. It worked flawlessly for that. Then I installed Steam and the paw patrol game for the kids, with controller support, and again everything worked flawlessly.

This basically gave me the confidence to just axe windows on my home desktop and fail horribly over and over again to get Arch working. Until I didn't. I'm still Linux illiterate, but the Arch wiki, their IRC channel and duck.ai & asking every available LLM through it for consensus, helped a ton with resolving anything I have encountered. I'd probably go for something more stable though next time.

So yeah tl;dr try on old laptop first for a month, then switch your main PC.

Absolutely go with bazzite, I have 15 years of experience and am willing to do unlimited troubleshooting for free if you message me on matrix.

as for why bazzite? it's immutable, which means there's a core set of stuff that is read only and can't be broken, which is massively beneficial for new people and is very up to date, and has the fixes for certain patent related stuff built in (fedora doesn't as do any other american based distros) that make twitch and some other websites work properly out of the box

MX linux

Switching to something else because you've had it up to here with existing is a bad reason. Your mind is biased and loaded for prejudgement.

Linux Mint. Easy to set up, reasonably easy to use, and used by enough people that a quick internet search should probably turn up results of people who have run into similar issues if you ever have a problem.

The best advice I can give you is to switch to Linux is don't right away. Switch the applications you use to open source or Linux compatible alternatives that also run on windows. Then after you get used to those on windows then make the switch.

I would also recommend not dual booting at first since it's too easy to jump ship at the slightest issue vs sticking with it to figure out the issue just like you would with a problem on windows. It's a real thing I have experienced it in reverse as a long time Linux user that tried Windows 11 i kept jumping back to Linux every time I ran into issues that caused frustration.

Here’s a nice pic that make you feel less “lost” about how some popular distributions relate to each other:

Since you are already familiar with the Steam Deck, I would go with a distro (that's Linux-speak for version) that uses KDE Plasma, as that's the desktop environment used by Steam OS. My recommendation therefore is Bazzite or Aurora. Both OSs are developed by the same team using the same core technology. Bazzite is more "gamer focused" (a.k.a. they are pre-installing steam) while Aurora targets more of a developer audience. But I would argue that the differences are, at the end of the day, mainly cosmetic. Aurora is still pretty noob friendly and you could still develop on Bazzite.

Both systems are "Atomic" which basically means that a system update can't screw up your system. And if you screw something up, then you can "rebase" the system which reinstalls the OS but keeps all your data and installed apps*. It uses flatpak with flathub as its appstore so you have the same apps available as on the Steam Deck.

Now for the downsides: Some apps are a bit harder to install. Mainly apps that need deeper system access such as vpn apps can take a couple more steps to install here than on other distros. There is also no live system. Many distros have a "live mode" where you can test the system before installing. This allows you to check if your hardware is supported. Aurora and bazzite don't have that.

Lastly the userbase is growing, but other disros such as Mint are still more popular. You therefore might find less specific documentation and tutorials on the internet for it than with other options.

*Technically it's more complicated than that, there are edgecases of apps that don't survive a rebase, but don't worry about that.

Probably Linux Mint. If you have a hardware support issue on Mint, Fedora.

I second Linux mint. It's my daily driver and I love it. I first switched my laptop which wasn't much daily driver to mint and when I got used to it I switched my main desktop.

Sounds like Linux Mint would be a good start for you

I really like Debian. There's a version of Linux Mint called Linux Mint Debian Edition (LMDE) that I recommend for people new to Linux. My wife has been using it for about 6 months.

The easiest way to install is by using the live image on a USB drive. I recommend installing Ventoy on the USB first if you like the idea of having a dedicated USB for boot images. Totally not necessary, but can be useful.

I'm in a very similar situation like you are. I too have started to be annoyed with the Big Tech products and the Internet in general.

I have switched to Lemmy, shut down my gmail account and opened a Proton Mail, and switched from using Google search engine to Qwant.

I too have switched to Linux Mint, and I'm loving it. TBH my IT colleauges talked me into buying refurbished Thinkpad laptop and told me to install Linux Mint. Boy am I glad I did that.

The next step for me is switching to Fairphone :D