Technology

Some advice for anyone who is seriously considering a move away from Windows:

• Set your expectations appropriately. Linux is not a drop-in replacement for Windows. IMHO, it shouldn't be.
• Some things that you take for granted are not universal. Much like a new language (especially your second one) even the basics are often different.
• There is a lot to learn. If you have the patience and humility to be in kindergarten again, you'll probably do fine. If you expect to be a master quickly, you'll probably get frustrated.
• You don't have to tackle the whole learning curve all at once.
• A few notable Windows programs won't run on Linux. If you have very rigid and specific software needs, like "Photoshop is the only tool that I can use to make a living", you might consider running those in a virtual machine, or on a second system, or dual-booting. If that's too complicated for you, then you probably shouldn't try to force yourself into Linux. Maybe try again in a few years.
• There is more than one GUI (desktop environment) for Linux. Some look a bit like Windows. Some look more like MacOS. Others look like something you've never seen before. You can test drive many of them by booting from a USB "live image". In case none of them feels quite right, most can be customized. To get started, just pick one, and know that you're not married to it; you can always switch desktops later, without even reinstalling the OS. Your applications will still run.
• Investigate hardware before leaping into it. Linux supports a great many devices out of the box, and even more with a bit of configuration. If you have the means, you can buy a system pre-packaged for Linux, including drivers, just as most systems are for Windows. If not, chances are that you can still find or build a system that runs it well. Plan ahead.

For reference, there's a lot of diversity among people running Linux, from software developers to secretaries, from children to octogenarians. I imagine it's easier for kids, since they don't have as much to un-learn, but the Grandparents in my family switched to it from Windows and didn't want to go back. If they can do it, I think it's fair to say that many others can, too.

I jumped ship to PopOS a few months back.

There are some issues, like Bluetooth not starting without some terminal commands, I think I have to wipe or otherwise mess around with my 1TB NTFS storage drive to mount it and stuff like that.

But all the games I've tried to play work fine.

CPU: 3700x GPU: 4090

Said like I'm the admin of my work PC. Doesn't matter though, I'll have the IT department policy edit this out of existence the same way I did their stupid windows 11 splash page ads.

that's what's kicking me,why would a professional license used primarily for business need ANY kind of advertisement/popup/nag from their OS? fuck off Microsoft

I hit the win key they start typing immediately if I don't already have it pinned below, usually rarely run software or control panel