Debian gets feature updates significantly slower than other distros, instead it focuses on insuring stability and security. It's rock solid.

Linux Mint is actually based on Ubuntu (which itself is derived from Debian), so for the most part the two are fairly similar. There are a few key differences but for someone learning Linux you don't need to worry about them. Pick one of them, get your feet wet, and then google the differences to see if you want to switch.

After all, endless Distro hopping is a right of passage for all fledgling Linux users! :)

I never got to run BeOS (well...when it was modern), but it's really depressing just how insanely better it was than the competition. Ditto Amiga.

I ran Arch for years, but I eventually realized I only really enjoyed Arch from a conceptual point of view.

The big plus for me is stability. I had a few major problems pop up after an update, and while I was able to fix them easily enough, It was still annoying that I had to do it. Fedora is nice and stable while not being too far behind.

The loss of the AUR wasn't that annoying because Fedora has the advantage of being one of the main OS's. A lot of developers treat it as a default

I gotcha fam

SteamOS-like distributions probably aren't for you right now. nvidia has massively improved over the year but it's still not on par with AMD.

Using an immutable distro (which Steam OS and its kind are) is just going to complicate things. Your easiest bet is using a distro that will install the correct drivers at install, like pop_os or mint.

If you want SteamOS there are plenty of options that are effectively the exact same thing but with a different name.

As long as you're cool being a bit more restricted in multiplayer games (a lot work great! But some developers are blocking linux), and you're okay with AMD (nvidia is improving though), gaming is basically on par with Windows at this point.

In some cases it's even better. I have a few games that require weird tricks to get it to work under Windows, but work fine in proton. Even Elden Ring at launch ran better on linux because it didn't have the micro-stutter issue.

LiveTV refers to a PlutoTV like service for Plex. There are a lot of amazing channels, but the big gain for me is having broadcast news networks.

FinAmp really isnt up to PlexAmp yet. PlexAmps "guestdj" mode is really awesome and it still doesn't have a Carplay App which kills it right there for me.

The Nvidia open-source driver situation has been improving. Supposedly Valve has been working with them on it alongside their ARM support.

You can also try your hand with the closed source drivers but ymmv.

Bit of warning about KDE:

It is very customizable, but as a by product is also really easy to completely fuck up. The first time I used it (eons ago) I ended up removing the task bar and couldn't figure out how to bring it back or launch programs.

Just spend a bit of time reading up on it and you'll be fine though.

Qobuz and 7digital have pretty good libraries and high quality downloads.

Fedora Silverblue.

Or really any immutable OS; they would have to go way out of their way to even edit system files, much less break the system. I just recommend Silverblue because gnome is really hard for an inexperienced user to break.