For the love of god and all that is holy just use mint cinnamon it’s the easies most stable with little learning curve ever. High performance great for work gaming browsing whatever lol. If you can use windows 7/10 you can use mint cinnamon
I’ve been using Mint for quite a while now on a spare machine and it’s the first linux strain that has me not giving up in frustration. I can definitely recommend.
Honestly, I recommend everyone without existing Linux experience to use Fedora: it's reasonable modern (nice for, e.g. gaming), while also not being a full rolling release model like Arch (which needs expertise to fix in case something breaks).
It's also reasonably popular, meaning you will find enough guidance in case something does break.
Know that you’ll probably hate what you try first. Personally I say you shouldn’t use Pop_OS!, but its better than being scared of making a wrong choice. “distrohopping” is a great way to learn.
I was impressed by how streamlined and intuitive EndeavorOS (with Plasma) is out of the box when I threw it on a friend’s computer. Will probably switch to it myself shortly.
KDE is the best desktop environment, period. Why not go with a stable OS base but enjoy all the current updates of your desktop, app suite? Introduction: KDE Neon
In the somewhat distant future you’re looking to switch to Linux. Okay, the question of distros can wait.
What you want to do in the not-too-distant-future if possible is start finding FOSS alternatives to the software you use. Stuff like LibreOffice and Krita have Windows versions, so in the meantime start learning and using those apps. Because that’s the real pain point.
As for distro…distros don’t really matter. Most of the user experience comes from the desktop environment, and that’s a matter of preference so personal that the real answer is “try several and use the one you like.”
I would recommend using one of the distros backed by a big company or have very long track records. They are less likely to break on updates, and have a higher chance of supporting any uncommon hardware you may have.
Fedora
Ubuntu
Mint
Pop OS
If you have new hardware (e.g. GPU newer than 6 months) you will probably have issues. Follow the recommendations from the hardware supplier, or use something arch based. I used Manjaro a while when I got new hardware.
Besides those tips, you should decide which desktop environment you like best. I prefer gnome, as I enjoy to spend time in apps and not on in settings. Others prefer customization. Have a look at youtu.be/09cYQJBgKEs?si=KX8FZeMRcMlPTzG2
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