I’ve been using Linux in different capacities since the late 90s. I use Mint with Cinnamon because it’s stable, does all I need and I don’t need to fuss with it. You’re more than fine.
It is. You should try to move to a career where you sell the results of your labor, not the time it takes to achieve them. Easier said than done, I know. Good luck!
My point is there’s no required savvyness like it used to a couple decades ago.
A corporation is arguably best positioned to make the transition. The one I work at has all their administrative systems as cloud apps. The few production systems that run native can be run in a Citrix or RDP environment. Even now, with user stations running Windows, these systems are accessed through RDP for… reasons anyway.
Killing is overly dramatic, but it’s putting a burden on certain projects if they want to convert to it and not all have the resources to tank it. I don’t see Window Maker porting their toolkit to Wayland, for instance.
But XWayland exists so I don’t see what’s the fuss.
Not a laptop, but I replaced my old laptop with a micro PC from minisforum EM680 and I’m very happy running Linux Mint in it. If you tend to use your laptop on the same spot, it’s a great way have a more performing and ergonomic PC for the same or lower price.
I can power it from my monitor, so I can have only one cable at the desk. Bluetooth and wifi working out of the box.
At any rate, I suggest you stick to AMD graphics as they have native open source support.