For your printer question, you should be able to boot off of a USB and test that there, I think.

Some Linux USB images don’t have everything installed (so the iso isn’t super large), but hopefully they should have the printer stuff installed.

In my experience, pirating games on Linux works, but its harder.

1. Ubuntu is a great place to start! You might also look at Linux Mint with the Cinnamon desktop or Pop_OS. All 3 are great for beginners and have lasted me since the time of Win Vista. I never felt that I out grew them.

2. Gaming: use the other links in this post to see if they work. Typically, the older the game, the better chance you can get it to work. Don’t be afraid of following tutorials - tweaking and trying things, just be patient, read it once all the way through before you do it, and google what you don’t understand. It’ll take time but I’ve always felt it’s worth it.

3. Brave, yup native linux version. Some might suggest going to firefox or using vivaldi, but you do you Boo - 0 judgement space. (Political reasons - the Brave CEO is a cryptobro, etc)

4. Ahoy matey, welcome aboarrrd. Get yourself a good vpn service, stick to the major distros, and you’ll probably be right at home.

5. More than likely, your printer will just work. That easy. I’ve had several printers and scanners, hated them all, no end of troubles with mac and windows - not at all with linux in the last 15 years. The man that does most of the work for linux printing is a gawt damn saint.

6. You should be right at home in Ubuntu. Gnome does a decent job of getting out of your way once you get used to it. Keep your guard up, I would assume windows malware might still be able to run in wine and it def will in a vm.

Bottom line is you can trust Linux. The learning curve is worth not having an adversarial relationship with your computer.

The transition won’t be painless. You’re going to have to learn new things, especially if you’re familiar with the windows file system and how to work within that.

Linux doesn’t use “drive letters” for mount points, so you’ll have to learn that.

Many games through steam or other game managers are just as easy if not easier than in Windows. Some are more challenging.

If you’re tired enough of Windows that you’re willing to push through some discomfort and new learning, then it’s time.

Once you get to know the distro you choose (Ubuntu is fine), you’ll just work, and it won’t get in your way.

The best way to go into it is to think of it as learning a new skill. Some things are done differently, some things may require a bit more setup the first time you do them, but once you have your system where you like it, it should be possible to use without thinking about it too much.

Printers generally work fine in Linux. This is one area where Linux does surprisingly well.

For all the games, I’m not sure. They may just work with Wine or Proton, but it is far from guaranteed. I have had good results running even quite old games from the late '90s through platforms like GoG, though.

If switching from Windows or Mac and you want to keep similar UI for easy transition, check out ZorinOS. A friend of mine recently installed Zorin OS Core w/ nvidia drivers and is enjoying it so far.

your chains, your freedom

You would rid yourself of the Windows virus you probably currently have on your computer.

You try it and see if it fits you. This is not a religion. You use what works for you.

Direct access to microslop.

As someone with MSI gf72 who switched last year with similar use cases and zero prior experience with Linux:

I installed EndeavourOS after reading some recommendations here since its supposed to work good for games and daily use. It’s Arch so I approached it as a challenge but It turned out to be quite effortless from the start. I dual booted it for a few months without issues until Windows update broke my bootloader. After that I did a clean Linux install and never looked back. It’s been rock solid ever since.

I have yet to find a game which doesn’t run either in Bottles or Lutris. Some installers have their quirks but it’s manageable. I only play single player games though.

HP driver for Linux runs my printer without any fiddling from my side.

I don’t get into Command Line much but it’s awesome - installing packages and updating the whole system with a simple command feels like magic. It’s actually much less hassle than Windows.

LMDE

im currently using windows 11 on msi gf63 laptop. if i used linux i would use ubuntu,bec it seems like the easiest thing.

Ubuntu is popular but I wouldn’t necessarily say easiest. Something like Linux Mint would probably be simpler.

i game,i use brave browser,i pirate games and software. i also like that my hoarded pirated binaries of games and software will work even years later on windows without too much effort.

My child, you’ve come home.

i use an hp printer,and need to be able to use it on linux.

Stop using HP printers. That being said if it was made in the last 5 years it’ll probably work on Linux out of the box.

i expect to be able to use the laptop and not think about the os too much,meaning i wont distro hop or try to customize it too much. im fine with the terminal,my goal of using linux is being far from malware.

I’m a big fan of immutable distros like Bazzite and Bluefin. They’re so stable they’re almost boring. As far as malware goes I would say standard rules apply: scan random binaries before execution, run normal operations as non-root/unprivileged users, patch regularly.

You would lose all the worthless proprietary software that you’re hoarding for no reason.

i use an hp printer,and need to be able to use it on linux.

Then research if your specific model has compatibility issues (AFAIK HP stuff generally works well, but… it’s up to you to check before buying)

i expect to be able to use the laptop and not think about the os too much

That will happen, if you are lucky or if you buy hardware that specifically supports linux.

Would you expect macos to run on a dell computer? would you expect windows to run on a mac? linux has much broad compatibility but is no different: if it doesn’t work on your PC it’s not linux’s fault.

my goal of using linux is being far from malware

Just follow basic hygiene and you’ll be fine. Most importantly, don’t install malware yourself (chrome is available on linux too and, sadly, it’s also widely used).