I’ve played with Linux before and finally had enough with Windows. I’m a seasoned programmer but mainly concerned with gaming for this computer, except that I want to be able to run Unreal Engine 5 and potentially other big tools like that. TIA 💓
I used Lutris for anything Windows related that needs installers, etc. You can run that on pretty much anything.
As far as distros go it depends on how hands off you want it to be. If you want a set it and forget it distro I’d go with Fedora or Ubuntu.
If you want something more bleeding edge and customisable I’d go with EndeavourOS, which is basically Arch on rails.
when I was in uni like 5 years ago I put arch on the school provided laptop. Not saying to use arch but iirc I had to compile ue4 for Linux because a pre compiled binary wasn’t available. It had issues compared to windows.
I personally use Nobara for gaming and streaming. I don’t remember why I ended up going with Nobara over Bazzite, but I love it!
CachyOS has been very good for me for a similar purpose
there’s basically two types of dudes (gender not inferred): the ones that faced with a problem go “hmm, that’s interesting. let’s try…” regardless if it’s a lazy afternoon or they’re under heavy artillery fire… and then there are those that invariably go “oh what the fuck now!?”
if you’re in the latter camp, you have one option and that’s Ubuntu. for an experienced user it does suck in some ways, but it “just works” in so many others. you will have ample challenges making the transition and you don’t need additional ones.
when you’ve been around the block a few times, survived a crash or two, know what’s what and have at least a passable understanding of the OS, then you can travel farther and explore options, as your switching costs to something like Fedora WS are essentially zero and 99% of what you learned applies.
but, right now, you can stop looking - this is your only option.