Very interesting indeed! And thank you for raising awareness!

There's another similar project that's still WIP and that hasn't received a lot of development recently. Though, its maintainer does provide hardening scripts for Fedora's Atomic distros that are worth looking into. Hopefully, we might even expect a collaboration of sorts between these projects early next year 🤞.

Well I guess I’m a Linux user now.

One of us! Welcome!

Gnome apparently doesn’t let you create desktop shortcuts unless you resort to command line.

GNOME is indeed very opinionated. Consider taking a look at any of the "Desktop Icons"-extensions on extensions.gnome.org. This enables one to engage with desktop shortcuts without opening a terminal.

Linux is NOT dumbed down enough for the average user yet.

Depends. I can't imagine how something like Endless OS could cause troubles to someone that only requires simple functionality (like e.g. their favorite web browser working etc) from their OS.

As a final note some Linux users push harder than crack dealers I’ve met.

Yes. We can be very enthusiastic at times 😅.

I do think that engaging with different desktop environments at this stage of your Linux journey might be very beneficial in the long run, but I can totally understand it if you'd like to settle down for (at least) a moment.

Couple of things that might have tampered your experience:

• Nvidia. This should come to no one as a surprise, but unfortunately the experience still leaves a lot to desire. Unfortunately, even changing to Nobara didn't help you out there. If you're still dead set on Fedora, I would recommend the Nvidia Images of uBlue which are also mentioned in the Troubleshooting part of Fedora's documentation.
• Using Fedora as a new user. Before people start shitting on me, I'm a proud Fedora user and it has been my daily driver ever since the day I've switched to Linux. But -like Debian- Fedora's strict stance on FOSS requires one to take additional steps during initial setup/configuration after installation. The aforementioned images from uBlue (once again) help to solve that.
• I assume you just did the thing on Windows and straight up downloaded VLC off the internet and thought it would work out like that. I wonder if you do the same on your Android/iOS/macOS device. If I'm mistaken, then please feel free to skip the rest of this paragraph. If not, then please consider to read on. So, while it is possible to download software directly off the internet through your browser, this is in 99% of the cases simply inferior to grabbing your software the intended way; through the installed package manager(s). On Fedora, that would have been dnf and/or flatpak. As VLC isn't even found in Fedora's repos (though it is found in RPM Fusion's repos), your best bet would have been installing it as a flatpak. Which in this case, could have been through the built-in 'storefront' with a GUI (it's called Software on GNOME) or through the terminal with the flatpak install org.videolan.VLC -y command.
• Regarding Media Server, I simply have no experience setting that up. Therefore I hope that others could chime in to offer their support.

but y’all are dirty liars. Linux is still bullshit and has been since I first installed it over 20 years ago. What the hell has the community even accomplished if it still sucks this much dick to use?

This doesn't help your cause. Please refrain from saying such things in the future.

Edit: I just noticed this thread. It might simply be the case that Fedora 39 isn't playing nice (yet). Consider installing Fedora 38 for the time being instead.

What is a reliable yet affordable option to get started?

Unfortunately, good affordable hardware on which Linux is properly supported is hard to get by. I'm personally fond of vendors like (in alphabetical order) Framework, NovaCustom, Star Labs, System76, Tuxedo. But other vendors like ASUS, Dell, HP and Lenovo are known to sell devices that do a considerable job at supporting Linux; consider to check the compatibility/support for their devices through resources like linux-hardware.org.

Are my concerns based in reality or is Linux going to be able to handle everything windows does without issues?

Regarding video types; I don't think you should have any problems regarding those; on some distros it might not be supported by default, but that should be solvable with a single command. Relying on flatpaks^[1]^ instead is another viable solution and is enabled by default on a lot of distros. Moving on to word document templates; I suppose the suite of cloud-based services found in Microsoft 365 should work regardless. As for the question if the templates would work on LibreOffice, ONLYOFFICE and the like; I simply don't know. On to familiarity of OS and using it for business purposes; most distros that are friendlier towards newer users have been setup with sane defaults. Therefore, I don't think there's a lot that could go wrong as long as you're interacting with a GUI. When interacting with a command-line interface, note that information found on the internet is often times outdated. Therefore, if you're hesitant or unsure; consider interacting with the community for some help. We're all in this together!

is Linux going to be able to handle everything windows does without issues?

You should be totally fine aside from some software that's known to not support Linux at all.

What else might I need to know to use Linux comfortably from the get go?

Ask yourself the following questions:

• To what degree are you interested to learn how it all works and to experience what Linux offers?
  • If you see it primarily as a means to an end, then pick a distro that does an excellent job at accommodating your workflow without requiring you to relearn more than necessary.
  • If instead, interest in Linux itself is the main driving force behind the switch, then please be mindful that the Linux rabbit hole is very real.

Is it going to take a lot of time and effort to get Linux running how I need it to?

Somewhat related to the previous question*. Like, there are distros out there that I can install for my grandfather and he wouldn't even notice the difference. But even some (relatively) mainstream-distros can be daunting for so-called power users of Windows. E.g. I would argue I was your average Windows-user; play games, browse the internet, email, write documents, video-editing, run software required for my studies etc. It took me about two weeks before I was 'comfortable' on Linux. And even then, some of the software I used for e.g. video-editing just didn't want to play nice^[2]^.

So, yeah, sell me on Linux, please.

If you want freedom and control over your devices, there's simply no viable alternative.

1. Software management on Linux -at least on the surface- is closer to Android/iOS than to Windows. You should rarely (if at all) feel the need to find software through your browser. Instead, you should interact with so-called package managers. This can be achieved through either a command-line interface or a storefront with a GUI that behaves like those found on Android/iOS etc. Coming back to Flatpak; this is an (upcoming) universal (read: (mostly) distro-agnostic) package manager that tries to solve a lot of problems that traditional package managers have had. There's still a lot of ongoing work for it to achieve its design-goals to the fullest, but even in its current iteration it works excellent and therefore it's unsurprising to find it enabled by default on a significant chunk of the Linux landscape. Software that are packaged using this technology are referred to as flatpaks (or flatpak if singular).

2. In retrospect, this seems to be primarily rooted in the fact that my machine isn't that powerful in the first place. On Windows, it managed because it was better optimized for it. Unfortunately, on Linux, this was not the case.

We would love to help you! But please consider helping us by providing more information:

• Do you actually want to switch distros? Or just interested in what's out there?
• If Fedora 39 didn't satisfy you, then what exactly is bothering you?
• What is it that you seek from your distro? Being out of the way? Freedom? Polish? Blank slate? Security? Privacy? Ease-of-use? Up-to-date? Big repos? etc

NixOS has been around since 2003, thus making it older than Ubuntu (2004). Even Silverblue has been out since more than 5 years (October 2018). Finally, we can't forget about Guix that had its first release over 10 years ago (January 2013).

Welcome on board!

You revealed in your previous post to be a gamer. Therefore, I'd like to focus on software that might help with that (in alpabetical order):

• Bazzite-Arch
• Bottles
• Conty
• Lutris^[1]^

For a one-stop-solution for all your problems related to package X not being available in the repos of distro Y; consider the more than excellent Distrobox.

1. You should probably start with this one as the others might be less intuitive to you at the moment. Furthermore, their use-cases and thus why one might prefer the others over Lutris in the first place might not be clear currently and not even be stuff you worry about in the first place.

Am I going off the deep end by considering Fedora Silverblue or Kinoite?

I started my Linux journey on Kinoite, which unfortunately had some issues at the time of installing; after which I rebased to Silverblue, I have since 'mained' Silverblue while experimenting with a couple of other distros through dual-boot or on spare devices. The first two weeks were really hard as I literally knew nothing about Linux. The fact that documentation is -generally speaking- lacking doesn't help either. But if I was able to surpass that initial barrier, then I'm sure you can too.

But, motivation is important! Why do you even consider an 'immutable' distro?

I don’t really understand what new I would need to learn

You'd have to replace sudo dnf install *package-name* with flatpak install *package-name*. If, however, the package is not available as a flatpak, then -following Fedora's initial guidelines- one should install it within a container through Toolbx(/Distrobox). After a container has been created (toolbox create *pick name for container*) and entered (toolbox enter *chosen name for container*), one simply behaves within the container as though how they would in a traditional distro. As a last resort -in case installing within a container is not possible, well supported or doesn't work as intended- one can layer it (rpm-ostree install *package-name*).

Furthermore, /usr can't be touched (at least not easily), except for /usr/local. And some features, like UKI, aren't supported yet.

or really what benefits it would have.

• Updates are atomic; it either happens or doesn't, there's no in-between state. Even a power outage or a random crash doesn't change that. This ensures your system isn't broken if something unfortunate befalls it.

• Additionally, the system (for the most part) is reproducible; I can rebuild my system from scratch (barring configs; unless your dotfiles management is sublime) and it is exactly the same as the one that has been running since the inception of Silverblue. Cruft, state, bitrot etc can finally be left behind..., but we're not their yet. There's still some amount of these present in Silverblue's current model. But we're embracing OCIs and Silverblue's primary contributors know what's up over at NixOS and (hopefully) are working to make Silverblue ever so slightly more stateless. Even if a lot of work is still required, it's infinitely better than the traditional model as it has gone from an uncountable amount of possible states to a countable amount. And the mathematicians under us know that such an improvement is infinitely times better. Another benefit of where we are currently with reproducibility would be that it allows us to combat bugs effectively.

• Security benefits due to more parts of the system being read-only. This is however (somewhat) offset due to lack of the aforementioned UKI support. Hopefully, the well-defined nature of an image-based distro will eventually make more robust system-integrity checks possible.

• Not necessarily exclusively granted through/by 'immutability', but system maintenance has been a joy. Most of the time, it just works anyways. But, if somehow something breaks, then I can easily rollback; either through the terminal if I was able to get inside. Or through the GRUB-menu if the 'broken' deployment doesn't allow me to get inside. Furthermore, you can even pin a confirmed working deployment through sudo ostree admin pin *number* to select the deployment to keep around for longer. I recommend everyone to keep around their first deployment after installing Silverblue, if used wisely it's one of the closest things to a factory reset we've got within the Linux space.

Arguably there's a lot more to talk about, but these are probably the primary benefits.

Their business-practices sure do leave a lot to desire, which actually does hurt their trustworthiness; arguably their most valuable asset as a privacy-first browser. Hmm..., good food for thought, thank you!

Use Firefox.

I mostly do already 😅, from OP: "at times I have to rely on a Chromium-based browser if a website decides to misbehave on a Firefox-based browser".

Not sure if it counts as a blog, but I really value the articles found on privsec.dev. With (perhaps) its most exceptional feat being that it's somehow continuously kept up-to-date to provide accurate information at all times.

It's in privsec.dev's recommendations, so it's safe to assume it's at least a decent choice for privacy. I'd argue it's best for 'normies' together with Fedora.

One of its unique qualities would be the excellent support for Btrfs+Snapper out of the box and the fact that it's the only distro I'm aware of that has configs for both AppArmor and SELinux. Furthermore, its stable rolling release model is perhaps its killer-feature.

Its primary con is probably how it's not Arch(-based) and thus doesn't have access to the vast supplies of packages found in the AUR. Thankfully, this is easily solvable through Distrobox.

and saw the repo of hackliberty, they say to use alpine linux

On the same page you should have noticed links to excellent articles found on privsec.dev and madaidans-insecurities.github.io; both of which advocate other distros (as well) with the former not even mentioning Alpine. As for hackliberty's usage of Alpine; I believe they stated it as their backend of choice for running their online services. So not necessarily recommended as their OS of choice on a desktop device. Though I'd love to be corrected if that's not the case.

I was also looking to stuff like openBSD

If you can deal with it, go for it. Unfortunately I couldn't give up my workflow to that degree. One has to be mindful, though, that however powerful openBSD is, one can elevate it further by using it in conjunction with Qubes OS; this guide might help you with that. Furthermore, this also makes it possible to not forego your entire workflow for the sake of openBSD.

just hardening the arch build I use rn

Also a decent choice, it might need constant tinkering and a lot of know-how to keep it splendid at all times. Though, it's definitely doable as long as you're committed and eager to improve yourself. And once again, this work doesn't have to be for naught; once more this knowledge can be used to perhaps further harden an Arch-qube.

what do you think about that?

It's always best to first define your threat model. After which it becomes clear to what degree you need further protection and what would be the best course of action to achieve that. For some, just moving from Windows/macOS to Linux is already a giant leap and might be enough for their threat model. While for others, this might not be enough as they have to be a lot more cautious to such a degree that even openBSD on a regular laptop might not be sufficient. If you just want maximum protection, then Qubes OS is surely your best bet IF you learn how to use it properly on a well-supported device; kudos if you can get your hands on one that support Heads as well. If you don't mind a mobile device, then something with GrapheneOS should suffice as well.

IMO, you seem to be very new to all of this. Being overzealous might make you a lot more susceptible to burnout. Which is something you absolutely don't want, as this is not a sprint but rather a marathon; keeping it up and going on is therefore of utmost importance and incremental change can help with that.