I made the swich a year or two ago. It is much better I find. I leave it running in a tmux session on my server . with btop on one pane and switch to another with a split view to do work. It allows me to take a quick glance at any time while not taking the focus from what I was working on.
I would instead recommend running a tor relay or i2p node. That way you have encrypted traffic and are helping others and further legitimizing privacy by its everyday use
Unless its NixOS or something like silver blue or QubesOS they’re all basically the same. If you want to mess about try some different ones in a VM or on a live CD or USB. That way you still have your daily driver working when you need it
They make hardware with defects looking at you RROD and YLOD , they expect you to rebuy everything again every time there is a new console ( Nintendo). They remove your content that you have paid for from your library (Amazon, Sony, music from games), they alter the deal after purchase by instering DRM and shitty launchers and turn off servers (Ubisoft and EA). They lock you out of accessing stuff on devices you own with DRM (eg Netflix 4k on linux ).
Then we have regional releases, changes to privacy policies which we didn’t agree to when we signed up.
Add to the fact we’re being fucked over at every turn. The price of everything is increasing, housing is a mess, they’re fucking up the environment while record profits have been pouring in year on year.
They can go suck a lemon 🍋
I will only support FOSS and those who help further that goal such as valve. Otherwise it the high seas everyday.
Also they contribute loads to the Linux ecosystem so im happy to support them as I see it as a win/win . The sales are great too I spend like 50 ducats a year and get like 9 or 10 great games for that.
Personally I use Debian stable but I’d recommend starting with Ubuntu if you are new. I’m using linux fulltime since 2008 if that makes any difference.
The reason is you are guaranteed to find support for a program if there is a linux version.
Most of the instructions online have specific Ubuntu instructions.
The default install is quite user friendly.
You will have access to more packages than many other linux distros. You still have flatpak too if your desired package is not in the Ubuntu repository ( or snap store).
You can always pick a different one later once you have some experience under your belt.
Doing this you will be able to become familiar with APT the Debian package manager. Used in Debian, Ubuntu, Mint, Raspbian and other Debian derivatives.
Getting the concepts here you can then just learn the differences if you switch distro such to an RPM (Different package format) based distro such as fedora.
In short use Ubuntu for now. Experiment and read up about it so you can build your knowledge. We are a community that like to share and learn. Also as a general rule backup your files before you install it and after you have set it up how you want. You can easily just copy the whole home directory for this 😉
The distro doesnt matter but it should not get in your way. They can all be made to look and act the same for the most part. The focus should be on knowledge. Linux is like digital Lego you can pick and choose the parts you like and layer them together.