Add another SSD and dual boot. Keep the windows 10 install for the audio software and use Linux for everything else. Nvidia cards will work in Linux, you just have to install the driver. That's just a couple of clicks in many distros. I would suggest sticking with a distro that uses X11 since Wayland can still cause some issues with Nvidia GPUs.

Back up your music data to an external & a cloud backup. Then the OS matters less.

It all boils down to how willing you are to troubleshoot an odd problem or post on a linux nerd forum. I transitioned from win10 to fedora KDE pretty painlessly, though I did have to hit up the fedora forum for an answer to a weird hardware issue specific to my machine. Learning to use the command line for doing a few weird customizations I wanted was a bit of a stumble too (though I've heard from my mint using buddy this isn't an issue on Mint?)

My steam library works fine with the default proton option enabled and my day to day experience has me forgetting that I'm even on a weirdo operating system made by FOSS cultists (love you foss cultists, mwah.) I literally do just press a button every couple of weeks that updates the system in the way that you're looking for.

A lot of Linux distros are set it and forget it these days. Nvidia can be finicky though, so i suggest a distro that installs proprietary nvidia drivers for you—I think Linux Mint and Bazzite do that, though I'm not personally familiar with either.

The other thing is music prod which I am not familiar with. I've heard that there's a lack of Linux software for music prod but hopefully some other users who know more can explain what the situation is like on Linux these days.

Steam won't pose a problem. Steam does something called Proton, a compatibility layer allowing Linux users to run Windows game, and the vast majority of Windows games run flawlessly with Proton. Similarly, you shouldn't have to worry about losing saves, as Steam Cloud should save and transfer them all automatically.

Some things designed for Windows just don't work on Linux, Windows LTSC is a great choice for those situations. Some people have had better experiences, but debloating scripts have always been finicky and fragile for me. LTSC comes out of the box without the usual crap and there's no risk of it all coming back after an update.

You can grab a copy of LTSC 2021 and activation if needed, which will come with the Windows 10 UI and updates until 2032.

I ended up switching to Linux recently for same reasons, but my kids are older and i had time to nerd out and go full Archwiki. Ableton was one of the last holdouts that was keeping me from switching.... and I spent a good month dicking around with wine trying to get it to work. And I couldn't! I ended up selling my Ableton license and buying Bitwig, which is natively supported in Linux, and actually pretty amazing... (I don't expect you to switch, just telling my story. It has really fun modular synth-like interface, with all the other VST support and quite good out-of-the-box plugins etc.)

I also couldn't get Affinity Photo working in wine.... and gimp doesn't quite do it for me. So I'm not sure what to do there, so my photo editing hobby is on hold til I figure that out.

That said, some of my other windows stuff works magically in wine (sierrachart, games, etc.).

So with all that in mind, I'd say if you don't have time to figure it out, and still want ableton to work, it might not be worth the mental load until you have more time on your hands. Unless you have an old laptop lying around, it wouldn't hurt to just try it and see what you can get working.

Ableton and Cakewalk only work with Windows. Unless you have two PCs (one normal PC with Linux, and one workstation for audio-only, without access to the internet with Win10), then it's best to get a Win11 PC/solution.

2 kids here.

Avoid any challenges until you can handle the most important one. Just come back when he's 1 y/o.

I now game with them on my Bazzite Linux desktop PC and our Steam Deck. Kids love it.

I think you could still use that music software on Windows 10. I'm not sure when they'll cut off support for outdated operating systems but I don't think many would jump ahead of Microsoft. Windows 10 being unsupported doesn't mean that much if the software you use is trusted and you have a disaster recovery plan.

It's important to have a solid backup policy in place for any data you don't want to lose. Regardless of whether you're on Windows 11 or Windows XP. If you want to keep using Windows 10, you can. Just gotta only install trusted software and use a browser that is getting security updates for Windows 10 (so not Edge, don't know which others will be fine). You can watch porn on it too, porn sites are only as dangerous as your browser is insecure.

Now, the question of gaming. Dual-booting into Bazzite should meet your needs (I've never used it) but the question is how to keep it away from Windows 10. I live booted into a system with Windows 11 installed and could easily view and modify all the contents. Any malware that gets through Steam's and Linux's protections could easily install ransomware and cookie-stealers on Windows 11. This is true just as much for running the games natively on Windows 11.

Seperate devices would solve the issue, but that'd be a waste. Security in computing really needs SO much work. There are so many levels to this. If your security posture is relaxed enough you can just hope no malware gets through Steam's checks and onto Bazzite, or into any of Bazzite's dependencies. With meltdown and spectre I'm failing to imagine how I could keep Windows 10 or 11 safe from malware from gaming beyond Steam's protections.

TLDR: Stick to Windows 10, install trusted software only and keep backups, dual-boot Bazzite for games, hope Steam catches any game malware I guess.

Ima say something controversial but, a stripped down Win 11 is perfectly fine. I’ve been using various Linux distros now for a good while and there’s still something just not quite right for non-enthusiasts.

So the simplest way to score a light 11 is making an ISOQ with the official tool, or rufus. Then use the unattended script to rip out everything pre/during install.

The next level up is using something like AtlasOS playbook with WindowsAME tool to rip everything out post-install.

Or you can completely customise your own ISO with (I presume it exists still, nlite or similar).

Or start with the LTSC/IoT offerings.

I really hope Microsoft release their Xbox variant for general install and not just handhelds.

With windows 10 support coming to an end, I'm faced with a choice to either jump on the Linux train or take the safe way out and eat win11

Why do I keep seeing this fallacy everywhere?

Are you shilling for Microsoft?

Just keep using 10. Need support? There are literally millions of support posts on various sites and forums. Just google the issue.

As most people suggest, I'd also recommend going with Windows 11 for this use case, but with the caveat that you should get a Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC license if you can find it.

It's the best version of the OS. It only pushes security updates, no new features ( this means xbox and candy crush won't magically show up in your start menu after major updates) and it comes with all the AI and Microsoft Store stuff stripped out.

Theoretically, this OS was designed for things like kiosk computers and control systems that need to maintain a stable environment, but it can do everything the pro version does with no hassle.

The downside is that it's hard to find. Microsoft won't sell it outside of volume license keys under enterprise agreements, but it is available through grey-market key sellers, and can be activated using the MAS if the high seas are an option.

You don't have to upgrade to 11 for at least a year or longer. Register a free MS account for your win 10 and you get free patches for Win 10 for a year. Otherwise it's $30.

https://www.cnet.com/tech/computing/microsoft-is-giving-windows-10-users-free-security-updates-for-a-year-but-theres-a-catch/

Whatever you do, don't switch to the react start menu OS.

Stay on win10 with an ltsc version, or don't. Get a second SSD or your crotch goblins mom's laptop that you install Fedora, LMDE or another "easy" distro on to experiment with. Either way, you are not in a rush. Win10 support ending is not as imminent.

Honestly, at 1.5 months it's hard. Really hard. But once you get the pattern down and sleep schedule starts stabilizing, say 4-6 months in, it may be your most productive time when you know the kid is asleep for the next few hours.

This is how I've learned to solder and build mechanical keyboards during the first kid hitting that age# and ditched ms shit for Linux during the second. There's always other challenges, but not having to deal with a user hostile OS reduces stress tremendously.

No. Don't do it.

You're not experienced enough to install and maintain a Linux installation. Fuck those who says "Bite the bullet and just install Debian! It will never crash!" They won't fix it for you when it does.

You don't have anyone who's supporting you physically. They are not a phone call away. They are ten forum replies away and won't be there when you need them.

Windows 10 is no longer supported, but no one is forcing you to either uninstall or upgrade. You can keep running it if you don't care about potential security problems.

Windows 11 is bad, but not as bad as you accidentally sudo removed /etc/fstab in Debian. Between bad and unusable, ask yourself which one you want less. This is assuming you spent your whole life using Windows and less likely make major mistakes.

You can schedule your migration to Linux in the future though. Just build a second machine. You must have the money to build a second one. Don't fuck with your production build.

Only get the odd releases.

Running daws on linux is bad. Just go to win 11

Id recommend mint, but ableton I have no idea. If you want to bite a different bullet if you go with linux, buy bitwig instead - its very, very much like ableton in the sense that you can map pretty much any parameter to any other parameter and I have enjoyed it a lot. super modern interface as well.

Even with windows 10 support ending, critical bug fixes usually still go through to users.

Just because there’s “no support” doesn’t mean it will stop working. It may eventually have some security vulnerabilities. If you’re a normal user using purchased commercial software you probably have a good 3-5 years before you’d start to notice anything.