Others have answered your dual-booting question pretty well. However, along the lines of “minimal” Windows, it’s not generally recommended to fuck with the system as that can break things. There are scripts that can strip a lot of the problems, though. I can’t remember any off the top of my head.

As for not requiring an account, I have old ISOs of Win11 and Win10 where the unplugging my ethernet cable trick gets me around signing into a Microsoft account. Not sure if it works on the ISO you get from Microsoft now, however. And if you have built-in WiFi, I think there’s a way to disable it in the command prompt before you install.

Edit: Win10 is going to hit EOL in the near future. I am going to use it until then. It’s got a lot fewer concerns (for me) than Win11, unless Microsoft keeps filtering Win11 shit into it.

Yep, dual disks with the Windows installation done first is how I did/do it. GRUB/systemd-boot worked just fine from then on, and I am not on Windows 11, so I didn’t get hit with that fuck-up Microsoft did just a few days ago.

Yeah, VMs are a good route since the OP didn’t mention gaming.

I don’t know what to tell you. We need more information.

Are you on Nvidia, AMD, or Intel for your GPU? What other symptoms? Have you done any other research on this in your troubleshooting? What does your config file look like?

I ask because I have a ThinkPad on Fedora with Hyprland and it’s doing just fine. Like another commenter said, help us help you.

I run Fedora on my gaming PC (KDE) and my ThinkPad (GNOME/Hyprland). It’s a rock-solid distro. Some may think the release cycle is too fast, but then just don’t upgrade right away.

Distrohopping is an addiction for me. As soon as I get settled, I’m ready to bounce. I want my gaming PC to stay where it is, but I might hop my ThinkPad around. Maybe. Fedora on it is fantastic.

Mattermost is a lot like Slack, right?

ThinkPads are my go-to. I just got an X1 Carbon Gen 9 (i5, 16GB) for $350 and put Fedora on it after upgrading the SSD to 1TB. It’s a beautiful laptop.

Of course, there’s the tried and true T480. Love that thing, especially if you get the right display panel and touchpad upgrades. Swappable batteries, upgradeable RAM. Those laptops can be had for cheap on eBay. Also check r/hardwareswap or the Discord for ThinkPad deals.

XPS 13 units can do well with Linux, too. I’m just a ThinkPad fan.

I’m definitely checking this out. I’ve been on the Audiobookshelf beta for a while and it’s not bad, but I want CarPlay support. And I really love this UI. It reminds me of that third-party Plex tie-in for audiobooks that did this same thing, Prologue.

I’m trying to get back into Elden Ring, but I forgot how late I was into the game when I stopped playing last time, so I’m getting my ass handed to me. But the DLC trailer got my hyped to play again, and I never finished my first playthrough, so I have to beat the game. I am also working on Animal Crossing: New Leaf on my 3DS. No idea what I’m doing, but I’ll take the challenge.

I may also load up Tears of the Kingdom on my Steam Deck if I feel so inclined this week.

I’ve done a few documentation contributions for some projects. Turns out that technical writers and editors are appreciated in certain places.

Not the original commenter, but Nobara is a great distro if gaming is your focus. It’s tweaked specifically for that purpose and has built up a strong community. I just hate that they use Discord for support.

Switching DEs can get messy in my experience with leftover packages and such. It’s best, in my opinion, to experiment in VMs and go from there, then go with a clean install when you make your choice. That’s what I did with KDE.

I could go for this. Netflix has had some good animated video game adaptations, like Edgerunners and Arcane. Plus, what I saw of Castlevania was awesome. But, it is Netflix, so who the hell knows.

• Nobara
  • Built for gaming
  • Based on Fedora
  • Stable and easy to set up

Yep, this is basically my plan once I finish my server.

The way to ensure privacy is running your own instance. It’s rather simple with services like masto.host and some VPS providers might have one click solutions. Otherwise, you have to trust an admin of an instance, especially with the Meta stuff.

If you’re on iOS and/or Mac, my go-to RSS reader is NetNewsWire.

They honestly think that phone is worth more than a fucking foldable?

If you want a familiar Windows-like experience, the general consensus is that Mint and Zorin are the best for helping people transitioning. Lightweight-wise, Mint MATE, Xubuntu, or Lubuntu would work. Could install MATE, LXDE, or XFCE on Arch, too. Might be a Fedora spin, too, for some or all of those.

If you want super lightweight, Void is awesome to play with, but you have to get it going yourself somewhat like old-school Arch. It’s definitely more advanced, but worth doing for the learning.

I really struggled with it. I couldn’t game in 4K because of Wayland’s scaling. It was either actually use my gaming monitor for its intended purpose or have the rest of my GUI be too small to use. (The lack of FreeSync Pro support was also a major downer, so to get the most out of my monitor, I have to use Windows.)

This was about a month ago, so I am not fully up-to-date.

Definitely a NUC or similar mini PC from the likes of Geekom, Beelink, or Minisforum. My whole homelab was mini PCs until I consolidated to a NUC 12 Pro as I build up my rack. Slap Proxmox on the machine, build some VMs and LXCs, and have at it.