If you’re reluctant because you’re expecting it to be a huge pain at first while you do setup and get used to it, I found it actually easier to get things set up on Linux the way I liked them than it does on a new windows install, or sometimes even after a windows update that resets some settings to default (without saying anything other than “your system is up to date” of course). It helped that most defaults are decent. The most time taken during the install was looking up what some choices meant in higher detail.
Though I do have an AMD GPU, if you have an nvidia GPU, you’ll only get that easy experience on certain distros specifically set up for that, as I understand. Other distros can work with nvidia but require more tinkering as I understand. But for me, I didn’t even have to install GPU drivers. The first game I launched was more of a “wait, will this really just work without needing to install anything else?” than a “ok, time to play a game”. And it did work, at least after checking the “always use proton” option in Steam.
And don’t worry too much about which desktop you initially select. It’s almost trivial to install and switch to another. Just be aware that cinnamon relies heavily on some form of JavaScript, to the point that my high end PC couldn’t keep up with rapid mouse movement without dropping some of the updates, though tbf it wasn’t a huge impact. But KDE-plasma handles the mouse way better. That’s on Fedora.
If you’re reluctant because you’re expecting it to be a huge pain at first while you do setup and get used to it, I found it actually easier to get things set up on Linux the way I liked them than it does on a new windows install, or sometimes even after a windows update that resets some settings to default (without saying anything other than “your system is up to date” of course). It helped that most defaults are decent. The most time taken during the install was looking up what some choices meant in higher detail.
Though I do have an AMD GPU, if you have an nvidia GPU, you’ll only get that easy experience on certain distros specifically set up for that, as I understand. Other distros can work with nvidia but require more tinkering as I understand. But for me, I didn’t even have to install GPU drivers. The first game I launched was more of a “wait, will this really just work without needing to install anything else?” than a “ok, time to play a game”. And it did work, at least after checking the “always use proton” option in Steam.
And don’t worry too much about which desktop you initially select. It’s almost trivial to install and switch to another. Just be aware that cinnamon relies heavily on some form of JavaScript, to the point that my high end PC couldn’t keep up with rapid mouse movement without dropping some of the updates, though tbf it wasn’t a huge impact. But KDE-plasma handles the mouse way better. That’s on Fedora.