Just made the switch to Nobara Linux on my desktop and ill probably go with Mint on my ancient laptop tomorrow. My only hang up was games but it seems like compatibility is a lot better nowadays so hopefully I can fully switch over. Same for windows only programs and Wine.
I only had a couple programs holding me: Fusion 360 and Windows 3D Builder.
Then I found out there’s a functional snap pack for Fusion 360. Now I just have to come up with a solution for Windows 3D Builder.
And the reason I use Windows 3D Builder is for 1 feature: it’s model repair function is far and away the best I’ve used for broken 3D models.
As Nobara is Fedora based and Linux Mint is based on Ubuntu/Debian, perhaps stay in this eco system and use some Fedora spin/derivate on the Laptop as well.
Good luck with the transition away from Windows!
Personally, I use KDE on Debian and it works great on my 2011 Laptop.
I just think, especially for a beginner, remembering the ‘under the hood’ commands, e.g. package managers, different preconfigurations of installed packages e.t.c., for such different distributions is probably quite challenging.
I’ve been using Mint for about 6 months now and it works with Nvidia just fine BUT the new user experience isn’t great. You have to use the nomodeset kernel option and install Nvidia drivers, otherwise you’ll boot to a black screen.
Helpful guide: https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?t=421550
I had an nvidia card in my possession briefly recently. when I was testing it I found distros that have a separate nvidia installer image are the way to go if you dont want to have a shit time. Converting a standard image post install is about as much of a shit task as it was back when I had a gtx 460. once its set up either way it seems mostly fine but I already had a more recent amd card and don’t want to deal with the kernel module crap. dkms has failed me a few times in the old days and I never forgave it.
