My current recommendations.

Just play games? Bazzite.
Just need a work machine? Debian 13.
Want a little of everything? Fedora.

Le Chat FTW

Haven't heard of that. Searched it and saw mistral ai. Is that the right one?

imo its not that hard, but if its your first time with linux i'd suggest starting with a linux mint/fedora vm or install it on a spare laptop if you have one. this way you could learn it a bit before making the switch

You could also start with a dual boot windows-linux, and then slowly slowly transition to Linux. That's how I started and I never booted windows after.

That really depends on what you use your PC for. Are you deep into Microsoft Office suite? Do you play games such as PUBG, Battlefield 6 or other multiplayer games with a particular infringing anti-cheat? Maybe you use software from Adobe? Then no.

Otherwise, installing Linux is easy, if you know how to create a bootable USB-stick.

As a beginner, I would recommend Linux Mint.

depends on what you use your computer for. for video editing, you propably should learn davinci resolve sind adobe doesnt work, which could take a while. For me, i use my pc for software development and gaming, and the switch was practically "instant", anf i have been using arch (btw) for half a year now. it took maybe a week to get used to the terminal and after then it has been getting better and better. i suppose the "getting used to it" period is faster on something like mint

I don’t want to say it’s hard but it also feels disingenuous just simply calling it easy. honestly depends on the person and what they want to do with the computer

Installing it isn’t hard so long as you’re comfortable following some instructions to load a file onto a flash drive and hitting a couple buttons when your computer turns on

For usability, If you absolutely need specific programs that don’t work on Linux, like anything from Adobe, MS Office, CAD software, a lot of music production software, stuff like that, and an alternative just won’t work in your situation (such as if you need it for work) then unfortunately there’s not really a proper solution there. TONS of programs have a Linux equivalent that’s open source and free, many of them work fantastic, but also there’s many that aren’t ideal. For gaming though, it’s gotten REALLY good. With the exception of certain huge multiplayer games with anti-cheat, almost everything will just work if you use Steam, and most other things you can make work by adding them to Steam as a non-Steam game and clicking a couple buttons

As for cost? It costs no money but will cost you some time when you’re first setting it up and learning the ways it differs from Windows

If installing it doesn’t intimidate you and you don’t need any of the software that’s not supported, then it’s honestly not hard overall but there will be some adjustments

Usability is the same or better, but this is incredibly subjective. The plus is there is probably a solution specifically what you prefer. If you're coming from Windows, KDE is probably the best starting point. "Desktop environment" is the key word of you want to see options.

Features are a bit more "it depends", generally more user friendly. But depends on the software we're talking about and can vary wildly.

There is no cost.

The only limiting factor for this endeavors in my eyes is that you might need some software that is Windows only. Many windows programs do run fine on Linux, which a lot of people don't realize. You can basically just install them using the compatibility tool "wine". You don't need to do anything for this to work on modern Linux. For games there is "proton", essentially a specialized version of wone. BUT there's software that will not run, or only after a lot of tinkering, or just not well (enough). If that's you, Linux isn't ideal.

If you're not in need of specialized software, just try it. Most Linux can not from a "live DVD". No need to install. Just use it directly. I've you want to keep your stuff (settings and such), install on a 2nd SSD for like 25 bucks.

I’ve been using Linux for more than a decade. Modern Linux is quite easy to start, compared to the old stereotype.

I highly recommend an easy way: for the daily softwares you use, you try to replace them with cross-platform ones, like libreoffice, thunderbird… when you want to try Linux someday, the migration path could be more smooth than you expected

i had a bad experience with Qwant, i also wanna try peertube but they gotta let me make an account😭

I read "American/Big Tech" as things that can be either the one or the other but not necessarily both. Telegram is a for-profit, publicly traded company based in Dubai that recently announced a partnership with xAI to include Grok into its services. Signal on the other hand is based in California and has been entirely non-profit so far. Pick your poison, I guess, but I know what I'm gonna pick.

It's not big and it's not for-profit.

i use arch btw

Bol (formerly bol.com) is a website where stores sell stuff similar to amazon, only downsides are the increased amount of dropshippers and they only deliver to the netherlands and belgium

People say nope to proton and signal in here without offering a better alternative. I'm open to shitting on them (proton CEO really pissed me off by praising the trump admin), but just saying nope to them without functional alternatives isn't helpful.

Why? What's wrong with Proton