No bloatware, no spyware, no bullshit

I switched to Linux mint cinnamon a couple weeks ago from Windows 11, but even though it's generally so much more freeing basically none of the programs run as smoothly and basically nothing I tried changed anything. I think it's something with the drivers, and the only ones that work are proprietary drivers. Should I try and troubleshoot more or switch to another distro like steamos?

https://www.tomshardware.com/software/windows/french-government-say-its-ditching-windows-for-linux-country-accelerates-plans-to-ditch-us-based-software-in-digital-sovereignty-push

I think in your case the best thing to try would be to install the latest Nvidia driver, or switch to an older one if you're already on the latest, or switch between official and open source ones. I've never had to deal with Nvidia drivers on Linux myself but apparently it can be trial-and-error like that. You may be able to just switch drivers in the Driver Manager and see if that helps, or may have to look up how to download and install specific drivers that work best with your GPU.

Your guide was super easy to follow and I've had almost no problems with it.

There's a bit of a learning curve but honestly it not that steep so I didn't mind.

Thanks a ton.

one of my friends tried to help me install it manually a few times, and we failed, and then we finally used archinstall. but each time it would take longer for the computer to restart. i was used to that on windows 10, genuinely taking half an hour to become useable when booted up, but even after wiping the hard drive and booting into a usb?? concerning

eventually it got to the point where after pressing the power button, it just sort of... sits there. like it doesn't look like it even gets to bios. when i press the power button, it shuts off immediately, instead of needing to be held down like normal. it's not beeping or anything, so if it's hardware failure, it's not communicating it - granted there's no speakers, but i'd assume it shouldn't need any for that?

it's not super important that i get this machine working, and i'm honestly kind of fascinated lol, but i would like to get some use out of it if possible, so i'd like to know what's going on. do you have any ideas as to what might be happening? anything to look into?? i don't even know what to look up here lol

i thought i finally escaped privacy-invading bullshit when i stopped using windows but now i feel doomed no matter what. should i be worried as a mint user or?? 🥲

Linux development is a global effort and open source developers are not going to immediately implement invasive features like age verification just based on some local laws.

Mint however is based on Ubuntu which is developed by a commercial company that might decide to comply so as to not lose customers in places with such laws. That most likely would affect Mint in some way, possibly a "Are you a resident of California?" type checkbox on install or a forking of different versions of the OS.

You can flash the two distros onto USB sticks and try them out by booting into a live environment before deciding which one to install. I'd generally recommend a more popular distro over a more niche one since it'll have better support and updates, but if Q4OS runs noticeably better on your machine then it's probably the better choice.

I'd also recommend giving Linux Mint a look: it has three desktop environments to choose from which are all reminiscent of classic Windows and the Xfce version in particular is good for old computers. You can try all three versions as well as Zorin and Q4OS on a virtual machine at DistroSea or from a live USB.

How do we get other icons to use? I hate how almost all of them look the same so I have to hover over each one to figure out what to click lol, also it won't let me pin shortcuts onto the screen? I tried looking up icons in the app store but there's nothing that looks like it's a legitimate program

It does matter a lot if you're using Ubuntu or Mint since Ubuntu's GNOME desktop is not easily customisable while Mint's Cinnamon is!

Also how do I install Linux on it without having to use windows 11 first to see if the computer works? I mean would i still be able to tell if there's nothing wrong with it even if I made Linux boot up first?

There aren't any specific brands of desktop PCs that would be better or worse for Linux, there's just some laptops that are locked down in a way that doesn't allow for changing the OS. If you're buying or building a new PC just be mindful that Nvidia graphics cards have less good compatibility with Linux than AMD, and some WiFi cards can cause problems on Linux. There's also some fancy hardware features like Intel Optane memory that only work on Windows and should be avoided, and any just released brand new PC components might not be fully supported by Linux yet.

Would that work?

Thank you very much in advance! I hope you have a lovely week :)