Linux

Think of linux as desktop android... That's probably the best advice I can give you. Depending on which distro you choose, they'll have different app stores. GNOME Software for some, discover (yes, that's the name of the program) for others, Pop!Shop for Pop!OS. As for managing apps - avoid installing snaps. Other than that, don't worry about it.

Pretty much all cloud providers are supported on linux, most of them just don't have bespoke apps and get added directly to your file manager. Some distros have a step during the initial setup, where you can log into accounts and what not, which should setup stuff like OneDrive automatically. And if not, i don't think setting them up manually is too hard.

Do not install/uninstall stuff from the terminal. Most self-respecting user friendly distros have an app store which does all the things for you. Installing things from the terminal/the internet should be a last resort, only if the thing you want to install is not available anywhere else.

As for my distro recommendations... try Fedora KDE or Linux Mint.

Pop os has an app store called "pop shop", that has both apt and flatpaks. Get all of your apps from there. They also have an app installed called "eddy" that you can use to install .deb packages in case an app is not available in their app store and you had to download the .deb package for it. Also, I know pop os has an outdated desktop, but they've been working tirelessly on their rust based cosmic desktop and it's coming along pretty nicely (an alpha release is coming soon). They do maintain their current distro no problem. I honestly would stick with it and set it up to your liking. It's a very good distro. As for your OneDrive, that can work with Linux no problem. You can also use Google drive on Linux.

Could you use a network share?

For distros I would go with Linux Mint

1. Good that only you do this, as a whole company setup is complex
2. Pop_OS is currently not that well maintained afaik, their GNOME desktop is quite outdated.

Just using their OS for the hybrid graphics support is a valid point, but should not be the only one.

Having a well managed OS is crucial, but I disagree that Ubuntu base is the best here.

For stability, a centrally managed Fedora Atomic would be better I think. Way more stable, image-based, all peolple would have exactly what they need.

You could build images locally and take care of the exact updates like that. Or you just share specific configs for each role, like preinstalling different software.

But having things like specific policies, any files, hardening etc. is totally possible during image creation.

What I try to do for managing apps is use the standard repository and flatpak as much as possible and any other method as little as possible.

I use Linux Mint, and the Software Manager has a "Show Installed Applications" option from which you can pick and choose to uninstall. I think the Pop!_Shop offers similar functionality in Pop!_OS but last time I used it, it felt like they put more thought into how it looks and very little into how it works. One of the main reasons I stopped using Pop!_OS.

At my uni we use OpenAFS. It works on any operating system.

Is this on your personal work PC or company wide?

Be careful not to burn the Linux bridge by being not able to support the transition now... :)

Edit: what I mean is, if you are responsible for this transition, now study study study... Be very careful and test each setup on a "test" machine before going to deploy for others..

If you want an alternative a seafile server and the the seafile drive client that mounts a seafile folder into your file browser works well. it will also download the file as you need it rather than sync everything inf the folders

Win11? More like lose11.

I'll see myself out the door....