The desktop environment you choose is really down to what you prefer:

Like trackpads? Gnome

Like the Windows desktop (and/or like customization)? KDE

Like windows XP flat UI or brutally simple UI? Cinnamon/XFCE

Want to dive into the unknown cutting edge? Cosmic

Famously, France and the NL have the same flag but turned 90°. Tricolors are not unlikely to share colors with unlike factions.

This flag is fairly well known even though it has no official use.

So on arch can you choose to run the deb anyway and get updates through the package manager, or is it that only AUR applications are the main application type? Or can you use both?

I have a number of apps that are super small teams/individual made that I can’t expect them to care about the AUR. What do you do in the case that an app developer doesn’t use the AUR?

What are some of your customizations?

you can set it up however you prefer and then combine them in novel ways to solve your tasks more quickly

Can you think of a quick example, out of curiosity?

First thing I wanna implore you do is create a separate partition on your boot drive for your /home folder. Distro hopping is super normal when you’re starting out, and by separating your home folder makes distro hopping very easy.

Bazzite, like others suggested, is your best bet at a first attempt because it’s much harder to cause irreparable damage with a stray terminal command.

All of the apps you listed should work just fine under Linux. Bazzite ships with Steam and Lutris (it’s a game store aggregator) to get you started with gaming. Use Microsoft 365 online or one of the open sourced alternatives like libreoffice for office apps. The rest of the programs should either be able to be run with wine/bottles/WinApps.

A 1050 is kinda paltry by today’s standards, so just don’t expect a big bump in gaming performance or super snappy emulation.

Option 2, with more emphasis on the login component. My files are safe, but I don’t wanna bother my buddy to 2FA me every time I need to reinstall Linux for whatever reason.

Omg thank you. I’m gonna try this out tomorrow

New problem: they have 2FA as well

Yes, lol. Long story short,I don’t have the password because it’s a shared account

It is; I want to reinstall my OS without losing my Dropbox install

I’m not, I’m on xubuntu at the moment

I was under the impression that one could force these to be themed, is that inaccurate? KDE Fedora btw.

Something immutable with VNC for tech support

Engineers. Doctors. Dentists.

In my accent I’d say “mo”.

The electric ones?

The car market is due for an IBM level shakeup in the west. It’s unbelievable to me that Tesla is the sole manufacturer that creates cars with as good infotainment as a standalone tablet from Apple/Google. Not a single other carmaker other than Volvo can be considered objectively better than Tesla. It’s fucking insane that Chinese phone manufacturers slaughter everything on the market in terms of fluidity and ecosystem. I’m pretty sure Chinese cars even support Android auto when Google itself is heavily restricted in China. Even if you’re supporting China by buying one, it’s worth it to kick western manufacturers in the teeth so that they’ll be forced to compete.

My Ford F150 Lightning takes two whole seconds to register a volume change with an animation onscreen. It’s fucking unacceptable that this is being protected in the west.