Win11 is a better daily driver than any Linux system. (If it was different, I'd probly start hating Linux too.) Win11 HyperV is a well developed virtualization system. Run a VM if you need Linux. There's also the M$ linux-on-windows thing, but I don't enjoy having the OS and the guest mix like that, so a VM is best for me.

I'm doing the same thing. Someone recommended Bazzite to me and it seems to come with a lot of the compatibility stuff ready to go. I haven't really gotten into it much but my plan is to dip my toes in with it and at least learn the names of the apps and what they do. After that If I want to switch I hope it will be easier. The biggest hurdle for me is just knowing what's what.

I do love the file browser on it already. I'm doing the same stuff with it I had to install 2 3rd party apps in Windows for.

Fedora is a safe bet. Kinoite is their atomic distro and bazzite is a fork of that as well as steamOS which is great for gaming.

I wouldn't recommend Mint if you plan on gaming on it all. It has of lot of older packages from what I've heard.
Bazzite and CachyOS are also worth looking into

In my experience, Ubuntu and Ubuntu variants make for a great daily driver for someone who is new to Linux. When I started to get into Linux, I just found the most Q&A content and support for Ubuntu as I googled my way through it. This plentiful support was specifically geared towards newcomers, which I felt the other Linux communities lacked in comparison.

I'm sure Mint is fine but it's hideous so I've never touched it.

Bazzite comes with a whole lot of stuff out of the box that makes the Linux experience so much easier, and the gaming experience so much better, so that's what I usually recommend.

I find endeavor really simple. All the goodness of arch and it just works??? with AUR? Woah! I think you are better off choosing a desktop environmental. That really changes the experience rather than the distro. I am a big time KDE fangirl myself and will thrive on any distro with KdE Plasma on.

the simplest answer would be: just try them all by yourself and see which one fits. Try only the popular ones btw, otherwise you'd have a hard time finding supports.

Word of advice: dont mind the aesthetics, but pay attention to stuff like package managers / packages and community. Here is what I meant:

• Unless you have special flavor from a distro like XFCE from Manjaro, any Linux distro can be made pretty. I can have Debian 12 on one computer and something like Arch on another, and I can still make both look exactly the same. So dont choose a distro just because it looks pretty, you can do that with any of them.

• Packages and package managers are so important, those are how you get software on Linux. Debian has a lot of softwares in its repos. Arch's main repos do not have as much, but its AUR repos allow a lot of softwares to be installed.

Do you like apt, the manager for Ubuntu/Debian? Or do you prefer dnf, the manager for Fedora and RHEL? Package managers are more of a style really. I like Fedora's dnf but Arch's pacman is way faster.

• Community is also important. You dont want to pick a distro where only a handful of ppl use it. It would be very difficult to get supports. Ubuntu / Mint / Debians are so popular that you can get answers from any forum.

That's the wonderful thing about distros, you can keep trying different ones until you find one you love or just get tired of changing lol.

Another vote for fedora here.

I use regular workstation. I like gnome so that fits. And I found when I set up arch exactly the way I liked, I was just recreating the fedora experience ;)

It’s not bleeding edge but I don’t think anyone really needs that unless you just bought a brand new vid card or mobo etc. If your components are common and 6mo+ old fedora is new enough.

I really don’t have issues with it. It seems to have become the new Ubuntu (install it and it just works).

As a long term Linux user I highly recommend the Universal Blue (immutable Fedora) spins. It's been rock solid on my desktop and 10x better on a laptop I thought was a lemon because Ubuntu would crash or do other weird things about once a week. The immutableness hasn't really caused me a lot of grief except when I tried to connect my 15yo printer (I just relented and got a new printer) when I had to go through a distrobox.

I use zorin. I can use it right away after I install for most things and over time I have added a few things. I do find the gui software interface annoying (its an ubuntu spin so same as ubuntu) so either download the ubuntu option for things on the web so it is just like installing with windows or I do apt at the command line. Its good for running windows software but not necessarily gaming as it is by no means bleeding edge. So its all about stability and out of box usage that gives you an interface that is very windows like.