It's time for the time-worn question. Which Linux should I choose?
I have experience running Ubuntu both as an install and through WSL, and I've been in charge of multiple Linux servers, one RedHat and a few Ubuntu. So I'm not afraid of some fiddling. Though I will say, I'd like it to just work most of the time. That's why I'm here.
Typical use case for my computer is I have a ~40" ancient TV and a ~22" monitor to the side. I often put videos or something on the small monitor and play games on the TV. Most of my games are FitGirl repacks or otherwise from the seas. I know Linux gaming has come a long way, but would this be an issue? Also, I like that I can turn the second monitor on and off easily through the UI with WinKey + P.
Aside from that, anything can do what I want it to. I dabble with some programming here and there, etc.
Thanks in advance for your input. I'm honestly just tired and don't feel like doing all the research myself at the moment.
With your level of competence, I would go Fedora. Little bit of CLI fiddling, but 99% just works. GNOME / KDE / Plasma are available preinstalled if you want a specific DE.
I been gaming on it with three screens for many years, absolutely no issues.
I second Fedora. The packages are way more up to date than Debian, and the default is filesystem is btrfs which is really neat if you want to get into it.
Would also recommend installing
oh my bash
so you can get a pretty terminal with some good pre-installed aliases and such.