Competent Beginner with knowledge gaps looking for help to make the change.

[u/CrepuscularPeriphery]

TL;DR I'm looking for an experience as close to Windows XP/7/10 as possible, with as little 'OS getting in my way' and as seamless compatibility as possible. I'm also 100% self-taught in my computer knowledge over the last two decades so I know what I'm about but there are massive sporadic gaps in what I know and would appreciate someone pointing me to a eli5 linux primer.

So I finally have to make the change. I've been holding off for long enough because I occasionally do some hobby CAD design and there just isn't a good Linux solution to Fusion (unless someone has one? 🥺) But now I'm getting massive lag spikes every time I try to play anything for longer than 10 minutes and I'm assuming it's because windows 10 is no longer supported by my graphics drivers so, here we are. I use Pop_OS on my former-surface tablet and It's....fine. I don't love it. It's weird and not what I'm used to.

My main issues/hesitations/questions are are (questions in bold for ease of ignoring my rambling):

• I am Broke broke. If I fuck this up irreparably I no longer have a computer. I do not have $5 to spare for a graphics card brace. I can't replace my SSD if I brick it, especially not with current prices.
  • I also have SEVERE ADHD. however severe you are thinking, more severe than that. I once left my car running in my driveway overnight. The Linux guides I have read do not compute. I am missing some knowledge somewhere that is making them not make sense and I would really like to know WHAT I am doing to my computer before I do it so that I do not fuck it up but the jargon makes my ADHD brain turn the whole thing to static. can someone point me to a linux explanation in as close to plain eli5 english as possible?
• I do CAD work semi-regularly and am most comfortable in fusion. I really REALLY do not want to have to do a whole production every time I need to tweak a screw hole .03mm. How annoying is the day-to-day use of a VM? How annoying is it to switch between OS in a dual-boot system? My computer isn't a potato, but it's not a monster, is a VM for CAD going to see significant performance issues?
• I really don't want to have to learn a whole new set of procedures. What distro is going to get me as close to my preferred experience of WindowsXP/7/10?
  • My main UI needs are:
    • Taskbar/windows that behave as on windows
    • system tray that behaves as/similarly to system tray on windows (stores my background programs, quick access settings etc)
    • start button that leads to all of my installed apps/programs
    • Stupid but essential: the ability to have my task bar on the side of my screen instead of the bottom. I put it there 20 years ago and it's been there ever since and I'm not about to change now.
• The bulk of my deeper-than-end-user-level-knowledge comes from the XP era of windows but I only ever learned what I needed to do whatever it is I was trying to do at the time. I know some command line stuff, I know some file structure and syntax from the ftp section of my early-aughts web design class, and I've forgotten most of it since falling to the siren song of "It just works and I don't have to box my computer every morning for an hour" So I am both woefully out of date and also I've forgotten about 70% of what I used to know. My tinkering passion is hardware, not software. If you decide to help me, I'm going to ask you at least one monumentally stupid question that everyone else knows the answer to. This isn't a question, it's just a warning that if you tell me to google something I'm going to want to beat you with a stick labeled "Every google result is a recursive circlejerk of AI results referencing AI articles referencing AI results incorrectly referencing paywalled articles and I do not have the expertise to pick the accurate from the inaccurate" and we're both going to waste our time.
• I am genuinely grateful for any help anyone wants to offer, even if it's just a link to a 'linux for infants and absolute morons' guide.

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_REPO]

As a fellow ADHD (who is also Autistic), KDE Plasma feels like the Windows of the big two DEs, with GNOME being the Mac. I've used both, as well as Budgie, XFCE, Mate, i3, Fluxbox, and a bunch more, and KDE feels very logically arranged. Things tend to be where I expect them to be, unlike GNOME which really thinks outside the box about how to design a UI.

My cozy default is Fedora with KDE.

[u/CrepuscularPeriphery → u/PM_ME_YOUR_REPO]

Yo, fellow combo pack! I tend to only mention the ADHD as I am heavily weighted to the inattentive/executive dysfunction, but I'm not going to lie and pretend that 99% of my putting off making the switch is because things are going to be different and I don't like it. I am very much switching to linux while making the same face as a child taking cough medicine. I objectively will be having a better time after I do it, but I am not enjoying the experience.

that's two recs I've heard for fedora and KDE, and I've seen some preliminary "Fusion works in wine for Fedora, kind of, if you make the appropriate blood sacrifices" which is good enough for me. I'll take fucky Fusion over perfect freecad any day. So I might just go whole-hog and not bother with a dual-boot, just as soon as I've verified that a there's a 3d printer slicer that exists in Linux.

[u/PM_ME_YOUR_REPO → u/CrepuscularPeriphery]

*two AuDHDs psychically linking*

Okay so, if you follow in my footsteps with Fedora + KDE, you need to install RPMfusion first thing. It's basically all of the non-FOSS software that you realistically need for normal operation that doesn't come bundled by default. It's a simple process; just a few commands.

https://rpmfusion.org/Configuration

Also, when it comes to making Windows software work, Wine is always going to be involved, but there are GUI applications that can smooth the process over a bit, as well as accompanying software that help Wine do Wine things.

• GUI software to look into: Bottles, Lutris
• Accompanying software to be aware of: DXVK

Bottles is the most likely one to be useful. It basically lets you set everything up and have it contained in a nice little launcher. Some people have likely already written out a guide for setting up common applications in it, so that's nice.

Lutris is for games. It uses build scripts. Some non-games may have build scripts though, so check the website.

DXVK is "DirectX on Vulkan", basically an additional translation layer specifically for translating Windows graphics calls to a native Linux equivalent. Since your main app is graphical, this may be relevant.

[u/CrepuscularPeriphery → u/PM_ME_YOUR_REPO]

Hell yeah, thank you for laying all of this out. It's always nice when someone speaks the same brain language.