Maybe consider buying hardware with better Linux support in the future, e.g. getting an AMD GPU instead of a Nvidia if you want to get a new one anyway.

I personally have zero issues with my (relatively normal) setup. Even more, I have better hardware support on Linux than on Windows! For example, I noticed that I can dim my monitor, which doesn’t work on Windows!
Or, my GPU is more silent, because Bazzite and the Linux kernel ship some tweaks that make the energy draw and fan curve more efficient in my experience.

Again, I think it’s just your hardware, especially the multi monitor. Multi monitor is supposed to be fine on AMD (can’t confirm, I only have one ultra wide), or single/ dual monitor is also supposed to be almost great on Nvidia, with the proprietary drivers.

If you have a spare laptop with proper Linux support (most ones do, even with Nvidia, Surface, etc.) consider installing it and just try it out. uBlue (Aurora/ Bluefin, Bazzite, etc.) is great for that, so, maybe check that out.

If not, then we’ll welcome you again in a few years. The OS is just a tool, use the best suited one for your use case. In yours, it may be Windows currently.

Bazzite offers a variant with Nvidia drivers already baked in too.

You don’t have to reinstall anything btw, you can just rebase from Kinoite to Bazzite with rpm-ostree rebase *link to Bazzite*. (You find the instructions on the website).

It takes about 5 minutes and you can keep all your configs and data, including Flatpaks, pictures and WiFi password. And if you don’t like it, you can revert that or rebase to some other variant, e.g. Aurora, the Sway spin, or whatever. I find it pretty neat.

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+1 for Fedora Atomic.
Especially Bazzite comes with Nvidia drivers already built in and everything should just werk™.
It’s very modern and reliable. If it doesn’t work with that, nothing will.

To be fair, the use case is very demanding. Just 2 years ago, we were glad that we can play more than one game on Steam, and now, we’re complaining that our triple monitor setup with Nvidia and VRR/HDR doesn’t work perfectly. I’m happy we’re at this point, but some things, like that, may hinder the wide spread adoption…

Maybe take a look at universal-blue.org, especially the Aurora (KDE) or Bluefin (Gnome), too. It’s basically the same, but with some QoL stuff already added, like proprietary drivers and more already set up for you for a nicer experience.

For one thing, image based distros are very convenient. If you tell someone “Just install Bazzite”, they will probably have a nice gaming experience without any tinkering, because everything is already set up for you ootb.

You have to understand the concept first. Fedora Atomic/ image based distros are built from top to bottom, not on the same level. If something changes from “above”, your install will change too, to an 1:1 copy basically.
Problem is, if stock Fedora isn’t allowed to ship/ doesn’t have some things pre-installed, it’s harder to iron out on the user level, e.g. by negatively affecting update times.

uBlue is basically a “build script”, that takes the upstream image, modifies it, and redistributes that with the changes included.
In that way, the image from other users is the same as yours, with the same bugs.
This makes it more efficient and user friendly.

It also allows devs to make their “own” distro with only their changes included, while offering a very solid base they don’t have to maintain themselves.

You could give the uBlue builder a shot, which can do exactly that.

But I think NixOS is a better choice for a tinkerer like you :)

It’s basically Nobara, but properly done. (If you choose the desktop version)

It gets updates automatically (max one day after upstream Fedora), has everything you want ootb in the first start wizard, is more secure, and much more.

I was very sceptical at first, but after trying it out, I really noticed some minor performance improvements in games and many QoL improvements, e.g. the preinstalled LACT, which allows me to set up fan curves and over-/ underclock my GPU.

Setting up my new PC took me about half an hour maximum.

9/10, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a smooth gaming experience.

What else? :D

I sadly can’t give you any input or help, but I really appreciate your idea and, coincidentally, thought about the exact same thing today 😁

I think a more stable (slower release) variant of Fedora Atomic would be absolutely great for people who don’t like change as much as current Fedora users.

A more conservative variant would be great, especially for companies.
The combination of a stable system (in terms of update frequency and changes) with the unbreakability and deployability would be a huge win.

Imagine being the admin of a small company, class or department and just creating your own uBlue-image with all software your team needs and rebase a dozen PCs to that image. Would be awesome!

I think, currently, Fedora is sometimes too experimental and leading edge, which might be a problem for some people, especially in the business world. Having a more stable variant would be great.

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Stability isn’t the same as unbreakability. It just means the update cycle is prolonged.

If you’re worried about your system breaking, go for Fedora Atomic (Kinoite, Bazzite, uBlue, etc.).
It offers a very recent kernel (-> better hardware support, better performance, etc.) and because it’s an image based distro, you can always roll back, so you’ll always have a working and pretty much unbreakable system.

This sounds like the most reasonable answer here in this thread. I couldn’t have said it better.

Preferences don’t matter if you get paid for it. If your job demands working with software designed for Windows, then use Windows. If you don’t do that, you have to find workarounds that cost time and therefore money, both if you are self employed or have to work for a company.
Either you, or your boss, won’t be happy long term.

If you like Linux more, then use it in your free time, or maybe consider switching your orientation for development to that platform.

Same for development for Apple stuff (e.g. iPhone apps). Then you’re stuck with MacOS too. Or if you have to use certain CAD or Adobe software, then you’re stuck on Windows/ Mac too.

Software availability is great on Linux, and today, you can get most of the stuff working on it, even if it isn’t designed for that. But is it worth it that time and effort? For me, it wouldn’t.

I can’t tell you if Void or any other minimal distro is significantly faster relatively to something more comfortable than Fedora.
But even if it is, then I would still use something “bloated” because it just works and requires less input from my side.
Booting takes just seconds anyway with NVMe disks, so why bother if it takes 4 or 5 seconds, if the PC runs smoother for the next days it is powered on?

Use whatever distro you like more, and install your packages with Distrobox. Here’s a post I made a while ago about it: https://feddit.de/post/8018330

I personally enjoy Fedora Atomic even more than the mutable version, but in your case, you would have to decide for yourself.

Proton is just the compatibility layer, which allows you to play Windows games on Linux.

It’s one of the main reasons so many people switched to Linux in the last months and years, since Proton gets even better from week to week. Something, games designed for Windows run even better on Linux (Proton) than on Windows!

From what I’ve heard, requiring Proton isn’t that bad, especially for the devs. Often, games engineered for Windows run better on Linux than the same ones for Linux.

You can still install Nix (package manager) on Atomic, on uBlue, it even comes pre-installed afaik.

And also, there’s Distrobox, which is totally enough if you prefer package managers over Flatpaks.
I personally like the “reliance” on Flatpaks. I think it reduces the fragmentation and makes it easier for devs, but that’s just my opinion. Do as you prefer.

I don’t like apt too as much. But, interface-wise, you can make it way better with Nala, which is a frontend for it.

NixOS is too complicated and demanding for most users, who aren’t programmers or hobbyists, imo.
I prefer Fedora Atomic. It has the same pros (unbreakable, highly configurable with universal-blue.org, etc.) but feels way more user friendly.
I use it with Distrobox on top, so I can use my package manager/ distro of choice (turned out to be Arch btw) on a extremely reliable system.

For your case, you can replicate Mint by just installing the Cinnamon image from uBlue and applying some minimal tweaks.
Then you get the user friendliness from Mint with the flexibility and unbreakability from NixOS. Do you like the idea? Just in case you get annoyed by NixOS in the future 🙃

I would recommend you to use Fedora Atomic, namely universal-blue.org.
It’s the stock Fedora Atomic, but they offer a Cinnamon spin with baked in Nvidia drivers.
If you don’t know why you should choose an immutable distro, especially as content creator, who wants everything to be always working, check out my post here: https://feddit.de/post/8234416

With that, you can use Distrobox and create a CentOS/ whatever container, which DVR officially recommends and will work best.
You can also check out my post here: https://feddit.de/post/8018330

Maybe ask the company if they can get you an O365-Account, so you can just use the web version of it or install that as webapp.

Sorry to say, but employees cost so much money in salary, those few bucks for software licenses are just minor.

Definitely! The only “good” 3rd-party themes are the ones from Jomada (Edna, Moe, Itchy, etc.) and from Vinceliuice (Graphite, Canta, Layan, etc.).
Those are well thought out, coherent and look professional.

If you scroll through the top ones, then you almost exclusively find ones that got their last update years ago, and now look extremely incoherent or buggy.
And even if you find newer ones, then they often lack the polish.
Man, it just sucks…

But hey, maybe there is just not that much demand anymore, because the defaults look great nowadays?