1. It matters as some distros have one maintainer or will offer you something ideological at great sacrifice, but you seem to already know that.

2. No, the biggest difference is package manager, community forum in case you meed troubleshooting, default DE (eases troubleshooting), and release type.

There are three big families of distros: Debian / Fedora / Arch. Any distro that is a derative of either of these three use their package manager.

3. Drop tuxedo and take a look at endeavourOS. It’s arch-based and arch has the best package manager of all. Also KDE is their main DE. I use Manjaro because I prefer Xfce.

In case you do use EndeavourOS, one warning, DO NOT USE THE ARCH FORUM FOR TROUBLESHOOTING!!

(If you’ve heard of ‘Sheldon Cooper’ from the tv-series ‘Big Bang theory’ or ‘Young Sheldon’. This forum is run by a real life version of him and you will get banned there immediately or very quickly, unlike other forums. Rule #1 of many is that any user troubleshooting admits that the issue is occuring on any OS other than Arch, including the closest deratives, will get banned.)

4. No. Don’t know what HDR is.

5. Tinkering with the DE is definitely fun and you should play with it. Be careful though, because the freedom you’re allowed also allows you to break things. But tinkering with the DE isn’t the worst thing you could break.

None of that matters.

You need experience, not recommendations.

Install anything and play with it to learn.

If you will not go forward without a recommendation, Debian is fine and anything you learn will generally transfer to other distributions.

Too many distros to compare. If you want to tinker as a beginner and not have to reinstall for minor mistakes, go for something like OpenSUSE, it has Snapshotting with Rollback built in. You make a mistake, reboot to the previous snapshot and make it the default if everything is normal. NVidia also hosts a specific repo for OoenSUSE so I have never had graphics issues.

There is no right answer. There are many distros to choose from and each has its pros and cons. My suggestion would be to try a few things in VMs before fully making the jump. Personally I use Mint. It just works and takes a minimal amount of hassle to install and run. If that’s a priority to you, I’d suggest checking it out.

1. Does the distro I pick matter?
   Packages
   When you install a distro it will have repositories of apps that you can easily install and easily keep updated using either the GUI (GNOME Software for GNOME, Discover for KDE) or the package manager in terminal (dnf in Fedora, apt in kubuntu and mint). It’s similar to how you install apps on a smartphone.
   The good thing about the apps from the default repository is that they’re (in theory) tested to work well with the distro.
   You can also install applications from other sources when necessary.
   Update Frequency and new tech
   Another difference is how new kernel and software you get from the repos.
   The latest Debian Stable runs kernel 6.1 while Fedora just updated to 6.12 and arch has been running 6.12 since december.
   If you’re running the newest hardware then the chance of having drivers available automatically increases with a newer kernel.

2. Company-run distros and alternatives:
   In my opinion Ubuntu is the ones doing the most forcing as of now, and even they are angels compared to Microsoft.
   Fedora had discussions about including opt-out Telemetry to aid them getting data to improve the distro. They listened to community feedback and backpedaled that into opt-in metrics:
   https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Telemetry
   https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Changes/Metrics
   Debian and Arch are both examples of distros without enterprise involvement and that have no upstream distro that can affect their releases.
   Map of distros here: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1b/Linux_Distribution_Timeline.svg

3. Stability of the distro:
   Of your frontrunners I’ve only run Fedora but that has been stable and been working well for me for my primary PC. So has Debian which I run on my servers (I have a Debian VM running Portainer for dockers, one for running Jellyfin and a third for Forgejo).

4. Monitor support
   Multi monitor support
   I don’t have the desktop space for double monitors personally, but I’ve heard that KDE 6 (Plasma) handles multi monitor support well.
   HDR
   Should be working since November

• https://9to5linux.com/kde-plasma-6-2-4-re-enables-hdr-mode-for-users-on-nvidia-565-and-linux-6-11

5. Both KDE and GNOME are customizable. KDE is more similar to Windows and I realized that most of my GNOME customizations was to make it more similar to Windows and KDE. I’ve since switched to KDE and must say I really enjoy having a proper file browser as default. Nautilus (default GNOME file browser) has been simplified to death and caused me to create a script to replace it with nemo.

Nvidia is a whole lot simpler to use than people make it sound like, though I’ll stay team red:
https://rpmfusion.org/Howto/NVIDIA#Current_GeForce.2FQuadro.2FTesla
Fedora guide for Nvidia drivers unless you’re running a really old card:

sudo dnf update -y # Update your machine and reboot
sudo dnf install akmod-nvidia # Installs the driver
sudo dnf install xorg-x11-drv-nvidia-cuda #optional for cuda/nvdec/nvenc support (required for Davinci Resolve)  

• Gaming including emulation
  First person shooters with kernel intrusive AV won’t work in Linux as they expect to spy on a Windows OS.
  Other than that gaming on Linux is really getting there as I’m sure you’ve realized when using a Steamdeck.
  Outside of Steam you have Heroic Games Launcher, Lutris and Bottles for running windows games on Linux.
  I’m mostly using Lutris but I think Heroic Games launcher is the more popular one.
• Firefox
  Default browser in most distros
  . VLC
  Available in most default distro repositories.
• Spotify
  Available as a Flatpak on Flathub, haven’t used it myself.
• Discord
  I know people has had some trouble with screen sharing but that the DiscordCanary (think Beta version) solves it.
  https://github.com/flathub/com.discordapp.Discord/issues/380
• Godot
  Can be downloaded as a simple bin file from their own site: https://godotengine.org/download/linux/
  Also available as a Flatpak on Flathub
• Visual Studio
  The closest you get is VSCode.
• Git
  Not a problem.
• Photoshop cs6, audacity, davinci resolve
  Photoshop might be trouble, Audacity and Davinci Resolve should work.
• Misc “Tinkering” (Handbrake, dvd burners/rippers, Really any weird thing I come across that I want to tinker with)
  Handbrake is available as a Flatpak on Flathub, there’s dvd burner applications available too.

So I don’t really have experience with the gaming aspect as I pretty much get what I want from a steamdeck. I think its likely you would want to go with one of those (a gaming setup someone else suggests) or dual boot to have your gaming system and your doing other things setup. Just in case I will mention the one I use called zorin. It is based on ubuntu with gnome and its main claim to fame is its an out of the box distro that tries to emulate windows (other systems to but the paid for version unlocks that. its default is a general windows type experience). Out of the box means it has foss office, video file viewing, audio file listening, image file viewer, browser of course, rdp client, mail client, calendar, contacts, also image,video,audio file creation and editing, optical disk copier/image creator, wine with play on linux so that you can right click a windows executable and run it and such. It does non free software things like nvidia drivers right off the bat. Its great for an install and get going right away type of thing. Its always a bit out of date because its emphasis is stable, just works, get going type of thing. I have a few complaints. Mainly it does not have the windows key, right arrow thing to half screen by default. It could be a stability thing that they don’t want to mess with the compiz or whatnot. Then the other thing is I find the software gui interface it have an aweful search for getting more software so either just use apt at the command line or download the .deb installation file which things like various browsers have as a linux option for download and then its really just like adding one to windows or mac. download and run the installation.

Shameless self promotion: https://lemm.ee/post/37682729

It won’t answer all of your answers, but it should at least give you a good primer on what distros are and what are the main key takeaways.

#1. The distro matters, but not much tbh. The main difference is usually the package manager being used, the default DE/WM, init system (sysvinit/systemd/openrc), and the variant of packages they ship. #2. Avoid Ubuntu if so. #3. I recommend Debian stable. #4. Can’t say much about HDR, multiple monitors are probably fine. (different refresh rate and such can be a hassle to configure tho) #5. Yes KDE is a good choice.

+Photoshop/VS probably runs in WINE but I’m not sure. You might need VM.

When you mention Visual Studio, do you mean VSCode or Visual Studio. Cus VSCode is supported on Linux but Visual Studio is not. Confusing right?

1. Not really unless you’re hyper-focused on a very specific type of performance. Even then, you can always enable/disable whatever bits and pieces because it’s all software, and it’s all open. There are guides or threads for absolutely everything out there. A distro only organizes it simpler on base install to make it easier ootb.

2. Linux itself does not do any data collection. Never heard of any distro enabling anything by default, and you can rip it right out anyway if you want, though it’s more work. If you’re concerned about this though, stay away from Ubuntu, as that is the one corporate backed distro that is more likely to lean into this.

3. Fedora is probably what you want. It’s taken over the helm Ubuntu used to have as the default to try. Clean, simple, no bullshit, huge community.

4. Linux, no, but you’re conflating a few things. Linux is the kernel. The desktop you choose to run is what does the graphical session management. Both KDE and Gnome are fine with this, though there is an argument that KDE is a tad ahead in this realm with their VRR implementation.

5. Gnome is more akin to MacOS. KDE is more Windows-like (but still not at all). Try both on a liveUSB for a bit and see which you like.

At the end of the day you can run practically anything on a liveUSB for as long as you want before installing, even games (within reason). Be comfortable in the knowledge that if there is something you don’t like a particular thing, you can change it to act however you want. Like I said above, it’s all just software. It’s going to be a little tough coming from a Windows-centric to realize this at first, but I assure you, installing and running one distro absolutely does not lock you into anything at all because you can just install and remove absolutely everything.

Now, hardware compatibility is a different story. The Linux kernel itself is what does all the hardware management, so if your hardware is too new, there may not be full support for a particular thing. It sounds like you’re on an older machine though, so unless it’s got some really obscure hardware in it, everything should be detected and load straight out of the box. Again, try a few liveUSB runs and make sure, it’s that simple.

I don’t have anything to say that everyone else hasn’t so I’ll just wish you good luck and hope you have an enjoyable experience

Others have already answered your questions, so I’ll just drop in my anecdotal experience to moving over my desktop to Linux last year. I tried a few different distros but settled with Fedora KDE edition. It works with everything exotic in my laptop out of the box, except for the gyro that doesn’t work with anybody else either. The desktop feels familiar and is easy to customize. I tried to like Gnome and variants but it is really settled on The Gnome Way of doing everything. Fedora is a fresh experience from previous attempts of going full Linux desktop with Ubuntu and even Mint. The GUI for software and package management is neat and includes native packages, flatpak both the fedora builds and mainline. Some minor things are not quite there but I believe that will be the Linux experience forever and I’m okay with it. I recommend to try it.

1. the distro matters, but as a general rule, start with mint cinnamon because it’s easy and super stable. different distros use different components and they are configured differently, so if you face issues and incompatibility on mint, fedora may work better for example. for me it’s the other way around. also on debian or ubuntu based distros you have the biggest selection of programs available. not sure what packages you are referring to…just applications in general? it’s as easy as just installing or uninstalling them from your package manager / software center or whatever.

2. ubuntu is owned by canonical, I’d say avoid that. mint is derived from ubuntu, but it has a debian edition so it’s not threatened if ubuntu gets further enshittified.

3. I recently used kububtu for a week, something to note: it’s running very far behind, using plasma 5.27. in my experience, kde in general seems to have lots of customization but a lot of it is just broken. all the themes you can find, most won’t install, animations are laggy (I suspect nvidia issue). downvotes incoming, but that’s just my experience. it may work for you though idk. fedora official and pop use gnome, which I have very limited experience with, but I remember it not giving too much control to the user with customization if that’s what you’re after, also what’s with the full screen app launcher? in cinnamon you will find a lot of customization and it all works. it’s also very familiar to use if you’re coming from windows.

4. do your monitors have different refresh rates? that was an issue, I think that got fixed in wayland. x11 will not be your friend. someone correct me on this one if I’m wrong.

5. I stand by what I said in 3, but go ahead and try them in usb live environment and see if you find it okay to use. btw you can install KDE plasma in mint too, you’re not married to the DE that your distro ships with.

you are probably going to need to set up a virtualbox and use photoshop in windows, I hear it doesn’t work well in wine.

You already have great answers, so I’ll just drop my recommendations. LMDE if you want something more stable, and Endeavour OS if you want to go a bit more in the weeds with a rolling release.

In the end, don’t be afraid to try some for a few weeks and find one you like. One of the strength of Linux is that if you mess up, you can always reinstall,and it’s not scary since you did it once already.

I, like many I’m sure, am taking Microsoft’s discontinuation of Windows 10 support as an opportunity so switch over to Linux.

Welcome on board!

Does the distro I pick matter?

In short: Yes.

There seems to be a lot of debate around which distro is best

TL;DR: There’s no distro that is best for everyone. Each individual has their own best. You just gotta find what suits you best.

but a lot of the discussion I’ve seen breaks down to what each distro comes packaged with

This is a thing of the past. With the excellent Distrobox, you can install any package from any distro on whatever distro you’re running.

This confuses me as if a distro doesn’t come prepackaged with something can you not just install it?

Even if we would disregard Distrobox, you should be able to install software that’s not packaged. So, you’re intuition is right.

Or is there some advantage to preinstalled packages other than mild convenience? Are some components difficult to integrate into your local environment?

Exactly. Managing software that’s not packaged in any way comes with its own set of jank. So, new users are definitely discouraged. However, as mentioned previously, this whole issue is solved with Distrobox. And if you don’t like CLI, BoxBuddy provides an excellent GUI and more. Again, this is mostly a solved problem.

One of the more salient differences I’ve seen between distros has been what the various companies and teams include aside from installed packages (such as snap and rolling out amazon search as a defult search), and the data they choose to retain/sell. Part of the reason I’m switching is due to Microsoft’s forcing in of unwanted features and advertising. Is the company that owns whatever distro I choose likely to be a problem in the future? Are there particular ones to avoid/ones to keep an eye on?

So, what you’re referring to is mostly a Ubuntu problem. They’ve made a couple of bad decisions in the past. Other than them, this is mostly non-existent.

Some peeps got question marks regarding distros like deepin, but I don’t know if there’s anything conclusive on this.

Lastly, some distros and/or (so-called) desktop environments might collect telemetry to improve themselves. But this is done in a way that suits free and open source software. Thankfully, if you’ve got problems with this, you can always turn it off.

I am the sort of person who does like to tinker with things from time to time but I do also want to use my computer most of the time so I’d like to end up using a mature distro.

So, all distros allow you to tinker. My question is: What is it you’re tinkering with?

• If you just want to have complete control on how your desktop environment behaves without going into (unofficial) extensions or editing text files, then you should at least take a look at the KDE Plasma desktop environment; which is literally found on all distros and very well supported.
• If, instead, your definition of tinkering is more broad or otherwise different than what I suggested, then please feel free to elaborate.

I have identified a few frontrunners in my search but I have seen conflicting information on which of them is “mature” (sufficiently stable so I spend less time fighting my computer than I do using it as well as having a large enough community and resources to help me remedy issues I might come across). Do any of these seem like they wouldn’t fit that bill? The frontrunners are: fedora, kubuntu, mint, pop and tuxedo.

• Fedora is a good pick. Though, I’ve been daily-driving (a) Fedora(-derivative) for almost three years now. So I might be biased :P .
• Regarding Kubuntu, let’s just say that it’s at least a controversial pick; problem being the Ubuntu part of the equation. I’d personally discourage you from going that route, but it’s ultimately your choice.
• Linux Mint is cool. I’d argue it does more hand-holding than Fedora, which is great to have as a beginner.
• Pop!_OS is interesting. It has garnered a great fanbase for a good reason: System76 sells hardware with their software (i.e. Pop!_OS), so they obviously care. However, Pop!_OS has definitely seen better days. It’s currently in limbo; the ambitious COSMIC desktop environment is just around the corner. But how smooth will the transition be? How much longer will Pop!_OS users have to endure with the relative lack of work put to the system they actually daily-drive? A lot of questions, but not a lot of answers. I’d personally discourage this as well.
• Tuxedo OS is similar to Pop!_OS. But where Pop!_OS first went to champion the GNOME desktop environment to later ‘abandon’ it for their own COSMIC. Tuxedo OS, instead, turned their eyes towards KDE Plasma. From what I’ve heard, it’s a good pick. As TUXEDO makes hardware just like System76 does, it’s unsurprising for them to care as well.

Does linux have issues interfacing with multiple monitors?

Unfortunately, I’m not very familiar with multiple monitors. The few times I did need it, which was on Fedora with GNOME, it did work well. I suppose it should be fine.

Does it handle HDR okay?

On KDE Plasma, yes. On GNOME, from what I could gather, it should work starting from GNOME 48. Which is a couple of months away. Though, IIRC, some ‘GNOME-powered’ distros may have tried to support HDR in its experimental stage already. On Cinnamon, what we find on Linux Mint’s flagship distro, AFAIK it’s not great (yet) 😅.

In terms of UI and workflow I really don’t mind putting in some time tinkering with the DE, exploring it and getting it how I like. It seems Plasma KDE might be good for this? Please let me know if this is an incorrect assessment. If it is, does it matter what DE I choose? If so, is there something you could recommend for my use case.

You hit the nail on the coffin. KDE Plasma would probably serve you best, yes. Eventually, you may want to explore Window Managers for how they could further enhance your workflow. But, let’s take it easy :P . One step at a time. Start with KDE Plasma. Get comfortable with Linux and the whole ecosystem. And if it so happens that you’re not satiated with KDE Plasma’s workflow options and you’d like to explore other possibilities, then looking into WMs is definitely a worthwhile endeavor.

I have a Nvidea build (RTX 2080). I have heard this can be an issue with Linux.

Yup. It has been better lately, but thank you for bringing this up.

I also have intermediate experience with linux through university and my job (with servers) as well as tinkering with SteamOS.

Things I use/do on my PC (roughly ordered in terms of priority):

• Gaming including emulation

Have you considered Bazzite?

Photoshop cs6

Out of everything, this could be a slight concern. You could make it work through Wine, and it seems to have decent results. If you’re not opposed to using Photoshop CC 2021, there’s this GitHub repo worth looking at as well.

davinci resolve

This is notoriously difficult to install. Thankfully, the excellent davincibox comes to the rescue. Furthermore, it’s also found in the AUR and nixpkgs. Note that the Nix package manager can be installed on (almost) any distro, though it’s relatively advanced.

Misc “Tinkering” (Handbrake, dvd burners/rippers, Really any weird thing I come across that I want to tinker with)

Assuming this “Tinkering” is the same as the one I asked you to elaborate/clarify before, then I can inform you that most distros handle it pretty well.

---

Alrighty, I think you’ve clearly demonstrated to have done your research. Thank you for that!

FWIW, assuming that KDE Plasma is your DE of choice (at least for now) for both its (relatively mature) HDR support and tinker-friendliness, then -out of your selected distros- only Fedora and Tuxedo OS remain to be considered.