I think you have gotten a lot of good answers so my 2 cents are. Install something simple like Ubuntu and try it out. Getting the answers to your questions will not give you the “feel” of using a linux system. Once you start you will begin to have more answers and a lot more questions, specifically in the areas you are interested in.

Also check the Arch wiki, it is really good for any distro because it gives a good reference for configurations.

Technically you can use Nix in windows systems.

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Have you heard of our lord and saviour, GNU+Linux?

I’m curious now, what’s a NZ English word that’s unique to NZ?

And yes, there is no system wide spell check, but I think windows/macos also don’t have this.

The only system I know with system wide spell check are smartphones.

Linux Mint with Mate +1

Linux in general has good language support.

Wrapper and AUR helper.

Is that you?, Crowdstrike?

Bro, install a custom kernel from the AUR and switch all your software to the git versions, just add -git at the end of each package. Do not use pacman, what are you? afraid of life?, use yay like everyone else.

^I ^use ^arch, ^btw.

Gaming: I just Steam for most games, I use Proton GE for better performance in some games

General SW: For things that are light and work with Wine, I will use just that. For SW that needs the Windows “runtime” like the Xbox Accessories SW for my Elite controller, I use a VirtualBox.

Most of my needs are covered by regular Linux apps, such as a Browser, Development environment and Media.

I’ve got a track for that:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUdyuKaGQd4

XFCE or LxQT but i have a preference for XFCE if it is for normal use.

Elementary has some very clean sober themes. I fell in the tilling windows craze and ricing so I’m sporting an Arch (I use it btw) with AwesomeWM, so very minimalistic.

Slightly deep fried crispy meme.

What’s giving you trouble? The Arch wiki is recommended for everyone, some things you have to make a little different but the general instructions should work.

Oops

You can set up the boot directly into Big Picture, there are a couple of ways depending on your needs/expectations.

Gamescope did not work for me, I have been gaming exclusively in Linux since proton was published but any time I try to get gamescope working it behaves strangely. I blame my Nvidia card but it’s hard to say.

It became what it is currently the Steam Deck OS or at least the lessons learned were applied to create it. That being said you have distros like Bazzite and Pop OS focused on gaming, you could try those.

I recently deleted my Windows partition and went full Linux for my personal devices. I use Windows for work and it reminds me that I made the right decision.

I use Arch btw

These are my favorite games:

Hyper Light Drifter

Dark souls 3

Hades

Nier Automata

Control

Everspace

Hollow Knight

BioShock

Bastion

Transistor

Saints Row 3