So, I was told you can take any distro, pair it with any desktop environment, and badda bing, badda boom, unique linux in the room!
And a few years ago I tried getting into linux, and it didn't work. I didn't like ubuntu. I want something that's basically like Windows 98.
Closest thing I found was TwisterOS. Well, I had some issue with one program, and I'm an idiot on linux. Have no clue what I'm doing. So the guides tell me to update the thing. So I do that, and the fan in my case stops working. Aye-yi-yi!
I never got it to start working again, and I just said screw it, I'm not dealing with this. Put it in a drawer, and haven't touched it in about a year.
Well, now I'm think I'll just start fresh. Install a new distro, and since Ubuntu seems to be the one with the most support, I'll use that. Then I find out that LXDE visually is more in line with what I want.
So I figure I'll slap on ubuntu, slap on LXDE, and then install retropie. And hopefully the fan will work again. So I start researching this LXDE, and the home page wants you to download the desktop environment already baked into a DIFFERENT distro! Wait, hold on. Am I wrong in thinging you can just download a desktop environment, and slap it on any distro? Because it might be me. I have no clue what I'm doing. And even though this is lemmy, when I searched for "Ubuntu Help", there's no community named that. There's also no community named "Linux help". Which I find very very odd. Lemmy of all places you'd think would have a linux help community! This place loves linux. Does everyone just always know what they're doing at all all times? Or am I just going crazy? I feel like I'm walking blind into a forest and bear traps line the ground. I have no idea how to even start this process....
I will let you on a little secret.
The best "support" you can get is support from upstreams directly (I'm involved in both sides of that equation). But upstreams will often only "support" you when you 1. run the latest stable version 2. the upstream source code wasn't patched willy-nilly by the packager (your distro).
So the best desktop linux experience comes with using rolling distro that gives you such packages, with Arch being the most prominent example.
The acquired knowledge that argues stability and tells you otherwise is a meme.
We can't recommend Arch to beginners. The maintenance is too high.
But yes, the support on rolling distros is great.
In any case, I'm surprised all the issues OP gets are from support for a fan? Something is terribly wrong here. I'd rather switch to any other fan (they're cheap!) and blame the manufacturer. Move along.
For windows9x UI there are retro themes (e.g. xfce4 as DE can be themed with https://github.com/grassmunk/Chicago95 ). For a distro, try zorin os maybe? Is focused on giving a modern windows-like UI and feel. In any case, my recommendation goes to debian or mint.
Desktop environments are tightly coupled to distros. At work, I got ubuntu. Got root, installed kde plasma. It works, but only because ubuntu is huge and has a "meta package", and if you're experienced enough not to switch the login to sddm, is all good. But even so, this goes to show that even if you can build your own system by swapping parts, this doesn't mean is simple. Most linux users simply take a distro and don't wander too far from it...
acquired knowledge spotted
As a Fedora user that used to use Arch, yeah, wisdom comes from experience. Arch is not bad experience, I just kinda got tired of it.
Yeah gotta back Arch here. It's relatively stable and a good compromise between the two extremes of non-modular highly configured and DIY.
The only moving part with arch is installing a couple packages.
It needs updates constantly. I'm not sure why you would recommend it to someone in search of Windows 98