Flaky

What about Pop!_OS? It fits all the criteria. It's an Ubuntu distro by System76 (known for their computers that run Linux) that foregoes Snaps for Flatpaks, so you get Ubuntu's reliability/stability without the Snaps. It does default to its own spin on GNOME, however you can install an alternative desktop environment just fine.

EndeavourOS might help with all of this but even then I wouldn't put a newbie who just wants to try Linux on it. Arch doesn't even have a proper GUI-based way of installing packages and there's not really an incentive to (Arch users say it's because PackageKit is shit, Arch developers say it's because PackageKit doesn't work with Arch's rolling package releases). PackageKit isn't actually supported on Arch and KDE Discover will go out of its way to tell people that it's not supported on Arch. Maybe someone who has experience with the command line I'd recommend Arch/Endeavour for, since you WILL be using it on Arch, no way around it.

Levelhead if you're a fan of precision platformers. It's very much a cuter Mario Maker but it does have its own "story mode" of sorts as well.

Yeah, in Windows. Windows and Arch are two completely different beasts.

I get the sentiment (Arch has provided the least friction for me when I needed something niche/specific) but putting OP on Arch is still pushing them into the deep end IMO. If OP is open to trying Arch however, I'd throw out a recommendation for EndeavourOS which is just a pre-made Arch setup.

For me, it was when Windows 11 didn't even give me the luxury of moving my taskbar to the top of the screen and I had to use a third-party application to do so, which was janky as hell. It sounds very small, petty and superficial, but small things like that can immensely affect one's experience and workflow. "You don't know what you've got until it's gone" is an applicable phrase to that.

Sure, I can just use Windows 10, and I do in fact have a Windows 10 VM in VMware (since WINE has issues with MusicBee and WACUP, and I'm trialing the Apple Music app for Windows as well), but Windows 10 will no longer be supported next year.

I miss the old splash screens with the shiny progress bar, tbh.

Yeah, even less nerdy people hate that. I've had friends who aren't well-versed in fediverse/Linux culture complain about ROM hacks in particular doing this.

I think another hinderance is that the people asking questions get ignored, dismissed or shouted at, even if they tried whatever it was they tried. The Linux community doesn't do this as much when someone who tried Linux runs back to Windows, thankfully, but if you're a Chromium user who tried Firefox, or a Bluesky user who tried fedi, and found that the former of those was better for your needs, prepare to have angry nerds flaming you for your blasphemous act.

There have been projects that skin Lemmy to be like a forum, based on phpBB code if I recall. Don't think the projects are active though.

I got Subnautica for free twice (PlayStation and Epic), I should really look at giving it a proper try. I have the feeling it'd be really good in VR, played No Man's Sky in VR recently and I immediately loved it while on flatscreen it didn't click with me as much.

I've always had American friends surprised that It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia is on Netflix here (UK). Netflix also owned some of the Adult Swim licenses before Channel 4 got the catch-up rights to it.

A lot of USB disc drives work just fine on Linux nowadays, and it's a matter of what features you want/need, really. I have a pretty expensive Pioneer Blu-Ray writer that connects via Type C, but I needed the extra features at the time so I went for that.