“Basically, I’m not in the position right now to learn a distro and struggle around with all that crap and I need to keep my music shit.”

If you don’t want to have to learn anything new, then switching your OS to something you don’t know how to use is a stupid idea.

I mean Windows 11 can do annoying things, but it’s not gibberish. Reminds me of XP to Vista, but less about performance issues and more about incessant GUI tweaks no one asked for.

I’d say update it and make do, then move to Linux down the road if it annoys you enough to motivate that decision.

It’s not all bad, I am enjoying the HDR features, which is the only reason I updated before the Win10 EOL.

That said, I do plan on making a Linux VM and playing around to get a feel for it.

just buy an extra ssd (i’d recommend 200 gigs at least, but if you’re gaming, obvs more space is needed), and install linux mint or pop os on it. imo pop is easier, but mint is more windows-like
set your bios to boot from the new ssd, and make sure you install everything on the same drive
and just keep the windows install, so if you need it or linux is too hard, you can go back easily
i think you have physical space for several more sata drives, so if you need even more space you can get a larger regular hdd, for linux stuff

fyi, while most games will happily run on linux, but you can’t use the same steam library folder, i’ve tried lol, so take that into consideration (however other loaders, like heroic launcher and lutris can run stuff installed on a windows partition, as long as the prefix is on a linux one. technically i guess you could use drm free steam installs too, but i’m already getting into the weeds, for simplicity’s sake, just use a separate drive)

you can use ntfs (windows) partitions, for example i use two for downloads, movies, music and other platform agnostic stuff

i’d be happy to help if you need it

You have a 1.5 mo old. You don’t have time. Be a dad. Be a husband. Be a hobbyist.

Take the easy route now. Come back when your kid and family are in a flow state.

Zorin linux - the closest thing to Windows you’ll get. Highly recommend. Installed it on several computers for family members who just want a computer that works.

No idea about Cakewalk etc but your Steam games will almost all be fine and Linux is honestly great right now and always getting better.

Having used Linux Mint, Windows 10, and Windows 11, I can honestly say that Win10 is okay and Win11 is annoying dogshit. I’d recommend taking the Linux plunge of course, but if you’re desperate for Windows I think paid extended support for 10 might be a thing?

But like I said 11 is dogshit and there’s no time like the present to just grab 3-4 USB sticks at Microcenter, download a bunch of ISOs and Rufus or Balena Etcher, and just dick around. Linux Mint with Cinnamon or KDE will probably give you one of the slickest Windows-like experiences OOTB. Only recommendation: some wifi cards (with certain chips, I forget which) in my experience have required me to go hunt down a driver, so check reviews for any card you’re looking at to see if people report it working out of the box.

Here’s a dad’s reply in a similar place - Win 11 is fine. I put it off for a very long time and just upgraded a couple weeks ago. It hasn’t really been an impact.

Is Linux better? Yes. Does win 11 just work without too much fuss? Yes.

I still have Linux on many machines in my house except for my gaming rig, just because I don’t want to have to break it and spend time refreshing it because my Linux skills aren’t up to par. I have a full time job and young kids and don’t have as much tinkering time as I used to.

That being said, I’m migrating ALL machines that aren’t compatible with win 11 to Linux to avoid tossing them in a landfill like many will do, like my son’s gaming PC.

If you move to Linux, you gotta be committed. I didn’t learn Linux until I said “fuck it” and forced myself to use it exclusively.

You will run into problems. You’ll have some days where you’ll spend 10hrs fixing something that no other person on the entire planet has encountered before, only to realize you needed to type in 1 very simple command to fix it.

As much as people hate AI, it can help with Linux troubleshooting. There’s also wikis and manpages.

If you switch at all, pick something that won’t break. Debian will run on your hardware just fine. You won’t have the latest and greatest packages, and as a newbie you DO NOT WANT the latest and greatest.

Nvidia drivers are a hassle, be prepared.

If all that sounds doable, send it.

I don’t know what all these doomsayers are doing. I installed Bazzite and it just worked. I decided I didn’t want an immutable system so I switched to Garuda, and it just worked. I have Nvidia and didn’t have to do anything extra.

There’s no reason to hope that you can change to a new operating system and you can copy paste exactly what you did in the other, completely different operating system. However that doesn’t mean its hard. There are distros that make it really easy to transition too. I had a really easy moving over, but I was fine with adapting to new workflows and software and OS.

I run Linux while having 3 kids, my fiancee, a full time job that has a lot of OT, family health issues I have to support etc. Life is always busy and will always be busy. I pace myself with what I want to learn based on how busy my life is at that time. Not pacing I would burn out. I advise the same.

I also think being pissed off at Microsoft isn’t enough to get into Linux for the long term. Its enough to just start. You need to be able to want to learn something new because if you make the switch, run into an issue with some distro, can’t get past it, you’ll end up right back where you left off.

Best of luck either way. Definitely do your research first and follow good rules for backing up your data.

I’m savvy enough where I can adult Lego a PC together but struggle when it comes to software and troubleshooting and really don’t have the time for that stuff.

Then Linux is not for you; it is nothing but troubleshooting.
If you have to use Windows, get the LTSC IOT edition. It’s official and it has none of the crap people complain about in 11 (copilot, onedrive, recall, etc.). I’ve had no problems gaming on it, either.

It sounds like you’re really sensitive to workflow disruption at this time in your life. You can’t change from Windows to Linux without some pretty hefty disruptions, same as if you chose to go from Windows to Mac. If you really don’t feel like you have the personal bandwidth to deal with the workflow disruptions and learning curve, you should go with Windows 11. If you hate it, it’s not like Linux won’t still be there for you to investigate later when your life calms down.

Man, you’re basically saying “I want to move to a new country, but I don’t want to lose any of my friends, I can’t change my job, I don’t want to learn a new language, I want to bring all my furniture and appliances with me, and we just had a new baby a month ago so I’m sleep deprived and don’t have any spare time. How do I do it?”

I would NOT recommend biting the bullet for Windows 11. If you want to use it, just make sure you have a virtual machine of Windows 11, and have specific purposes for it. That way, you’ll be able to sandbox the data as necessary.

Are you actually forced to move away from your Windows 10? You could just keep using it. Fuck Microsoft and its lack of support. If it works why change it?