Others have answered your dual-booting question pretty well. However, along the lines of “minimal” Windows, it’s not generally recommended to fuck with the system as that can break things. There are scripts that can strip a lot of the problems, though. I can’t remember any off the top of my head.

As for not requiring an account, I have old ISOs of Win11 and Win10 where the unplugging my ethernet cable trick gets me around signing into a Microsoft account. Not sure if it works on the ISO you get from Microsoft now, however. And if you have built-in WiFi, I think there’s a way to disable it in the command prompt before you install.

Edit: Win10 is going to hit EOL in the near future. I am going to use it until then. It’s got a lot fewer concerns (for me) than Win11, unless Microsoft keeps filtering Win11 shit into it.

Yep, dual disks with the Windows installation done first is how I did/do it. GRUB/systemd-boot worked just fine from then on, and I am not on Windows 11, so I didn’t get hit with that fuck-up Microsoft did just a few days ago.

Yeah, VMs are a good route since the OP didn’t mention gaming.

I don’t know what to tell you. We need more information.

Are you on Nvidia, AMD, or Intel for your GPU? What other symptoms? Have you done any other research on this in your troubleshooting? What does your config file look like?

I ask because I have a ThinkPad on Fedora with Hyprland and it’s doing just fine. Like another commenter said, help us help you.

High school crush. I married her.

ThinkPads are my go-to. I just got an X1 Carbon Gen 9 (i5, 16GB) for $350 and put Fedora on it after upgrading the SSD to 1TB. It’s a beautiful laptop.

Of course, there’s the tried and true T480. Love that thing, especially if you get the right display panel and touchpad upgrades. Swappable batteries, upgradeable RAM. Those laptops can be had for cheap on eBay. Also check r/hardwareswap or the Discord for ThinkPad deals.

XPS 13 units can do well with Linux, too. I’m just a ThinkPad fan.

I’m trying to get back into Elden Ring, but I forgot how late I was into the game when I stopped playing last time, so I’m getting my ass handed to me. But the DLC trailer got my hyped to play again, and I never finished my first playthrough, so I have to beat the game. I am also working on Animal Crossing: New Leaf on my 3DS. No idea what I’m doing, but I’ll take the challenge.

I may also load up Tears of the Kingdom on my Steam Deck if I feel so inclined this week.

It never stops. Distro hopping is an addiction for me.

I’ve done a few documentation contributions for some projects. Turns out that technical writers and editors are appreciated in certain places.

Still working on it. Goddamn antipsychotics make it really difficult, but I’m gonna do it.

Not the original commenter, but Nobara is a great distro if gaming is your focus. It’s tweaked specifically for that purpose and has built up a strong community. I just hate that they use Discord for support.

Switching DEs can get messy in my experience with leftover packages and such. It’s best, in my opinion, to experiment in VMs and go from there, then go with a clean install when you make your choice. That’s what I did with KDE.

I use LMDE on an XPS 13 9360 and it is a rock solid. I adore this distro, especially on older hardware. If I ever switch away from my MacBook Pro, LMDE is going to be my daily driver. (And I’m strongly considering a Framework 13 AMD as my next laptop when it comes time to upgrade.)

LMDE squad, unite!

Both. I prefer digital generally because I’m a digital hoarder and I love seeing my Calibre library get bigger and carrying my Kobo around, but there’s something satisfying about seeing my bookmark make steady progress through a physical book (slowly; I’m a slow reader).

I’m gonna tell you what you’ve probably been told a million times before. Life ain’t fair. Never has been, never will be. You know it, I know it.

You always have choices to make and each choice bears with it consequences that you must be willing to endure. In the end, you have to decide what’s more important to you. Do you care more about interacting with your loved ones on the internet or your private information?

It’s a loaded question in either direction. Of course my original comment was easy to say and difficult to exact in practice. That’s what it means to have principles you stand for.

It’s not that big of a deal. You live your life and you let them live theirs. It’s what I’ve done. If they want to continue to use the corporate stuff, that’s on them. Hell, I don’t even harass my wife about it. Just let people be. If it bothers you, go where they are. If it doesn’t, stay here and enjoy what makes this part of the internet great.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that “bipolar isn’t so bad,” because it sure can be. However, I have stopped whining, complaining, and lamenting. I have accepted my illness. I take my medication and I try to live my best life.

Schizoaffective disorder is a much greater challenge, but again, I have accepted it. I bear this cross and no matter what happens, you’re right, I have power over myself. I may not always have full control over my mental faculties, but I have been through the hell of my mind turning on itself. What are the trivialities of life compared to that?

Life sucks for us all in different ways. I do not think I have it worse than anyone else, just tough in my own way. We each must deal with our own challenges.

A lot of people don’t understand bipolar disorder, or schizoaffective disorder specifically in my case. “Had” being incorrect, as it’s a lifelong illness.

Here, unfortunately, YTA if you don’t tip. I forgot once and had the server run after me to make sure something wasn’t wrong. Some service folks take it personally if you don’t tip, which makes sense given that their employers don’t pay them shit. So yeah, you the customer foot the bill for ensuring these people can make ends meet… as if giving the restaurant your custom wasn’t support enough.

The problem is that, like most other industries here in the US, the system is rigged against the working class. While not all restaurant owners intend to fuck over their staff (especially smaller, local places), it’s how it works. Now, some places will automatically add gratuity to your bill under certain conditions, so check your breakdown to ensure it’s not already included. This is becoming more common, which irritates me since I scale my tip based on the quality of the service rendered.

Also, we know it’s expensive here. Don’t bother coming here to complain about it, we do it enough ourselves. Tipping is here to stay for now and I don’t imagine it changing for quite some time.