You can do Windows, sometimes you've gotta do Windows, but I highly recommend learning Linux. Just get a dual boot or a different drive running linux and set up something that works for what you need. If you're just doing general office work and some gaming Linux will do what you need. If you want to play a few specific games that don't work or need Adobe or Solidworks for work you'll need windows. It can be virtualized though!

Ugh. I mostly main linux but on this gaming laptop it came with win 11 and I had to jump through hoops to downgrade it to win 10. This is the last time I windows.

I just thought I might want to run games natively. I don't.

I saw you said something bout Google Drive. You can sync google drive and one drive and all that shit on linux. Just need to find an application you like that provides that functionality and then do, you know, the thing. Eg. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Insync <- haven't used it but allegedly you can sync to the google and microsoft cloud storage shits using this tool, letting you basically mount them to your local filesystem.

Not saying you should use arch linux, their wiki is just usually very comprehensive as far as finding out how people solve various problems. A solution described on there can usually be applied to some other distro, with adjustments for that other distro's particular quirks and configuration.

Alternatively, and I hate to suggest this, but buying a second hand macbook will get you out of the microsoft ecosystem while being accessible enough that you don't need to learn and get used to a bunch of new things before you can confidently get back on with using the machine productively.

I tried changing the time format in windows 11 and I had to go through like 4 submenus

Had to "upgrade" our computers to win11 at work last month, everything runs worse and everybody agrees its utter garbage.

On the bright side this has helped me convince one of my coworkers to try Linux on their home computer.

Comrade, Were preparing to deploy W11 at work and I'm not excited by the prospect of attempting to gut all the bullshit found inside that monstrous turd of an operating system.

Windows 12

Bazzite is great.

Join the Linux atomic side, comrade

Bazzite is great.

Join the Linux atomic side, comrade

Linux is of course the based solution but I feel you. Windows has gotten so fucking bad since 10, to the point where I feel like 10 was the first windows version I've personally used that has gotten WORSE during its life cycle.

95 and XP had popular service pack updates that improved things immeasurably.

Vista had a bunch of updates and service pack shit that largely solved a load of people's complaints with it by the end.

7 was goated with the sauce the whole time.

8 had 8.1 which was basically Win 10 lite. Not as good as 7 for most people but the .1 upgrade was the biggest improvement for a Windows version imo.

Now Windows 10 has just gotten shittier and shittier; It peaked around 2021. Even before I got onto Linux (and became biased) they were stuffing adware and toolbar shit into the desktop almost every update, and even with Win11 in full swing they've tried shoehorning AI crap into 10 anyway. What could've been another Windows 7 ended up being about as bad to use as 8.1.

ok boomer

Debian awaits, comrade.

I am open to trying Linux, but how can I make it as close to the Windows 10 experience as possible so I can baby step into it?