Migrated from Windows to Linux. Decided to share list of answers/statements I was looking for before did it (and could not find).
Finally migrated from Windows to Linux. For anyone wondering, what is the state of Linux as your primary OS for home PC\laptop in 2023.
I've finalised my Archlinux installation yesterday, I dropped of Linux more than 10 years ago and experience in 2023 in comparison is awesome and beyond even wildest dreams back then:
For average user looking for more out of the box experience I would suggest something Arch based (people in comments suggest EndeavourOS, please do your research). Archlinux installation took me quite some time
Almost everything works out of the box, by just installing corresponding package
KDE Plasma environment is fast and beautiful
Pipewire audio server (Jack\Pulseaudio replacement) works great
Wayland window server is not there yet, especially if you have Nvidia with proprietary drivers and want to use VR. Waking up, session restoration and other scenarios have issues. Use X11.
Wine is great!
Music making - Bitwig Studio DAW has linux native version, yabridge allow you to use windows VSTs, which are easily installed via wine
Gaming works out of the box with Steam for majority of titles, some games have native linux version. Performance is great. In worst case windows game might loose 5-15% in performance. Was not case for my titles
Gaming outside steam is fine too. Use Wine, Lutris, Proton
VR is a mixed bag. Not everything is there (Desktop view, sound control and mirroring, camera, motions smooth, lighthouses do not wake up os go to sleep. I use my phone to turn them on/off). But if its not the problem for you, quite some titles work. Tried: native HF Alyx, Lab, windows: Beat Saber and Boneworks. For me it's a surprise, I did not count on it. Performance is great.
So overall my experience is great. Eventually I'm going to get rid of WIndows on other computers and laptops at howe. I can finally wave goodbye to Windows, with lots of ads and bloatware. Alway glad to help with answers regarding installation while my memory and history logs are fresh. ^^
Started using linux more myself and can't believe I wasn't earlier, apart from mid vr support which I'm keeping a dedicated windows partition for, the games run faster in some cases, mangohud is better than any fps monitoring tool on windows, kde feels way snappier to use and doesn't bother me like windows, its the obvious choice
Care to share what you settled on? I'm a Windows gamer (inc. HTC VR) and occasional developer with some experience on headless Linux (Debian and Ubuntu) servers deploying and working on my programs. I'm definitely not confident as a Linux system admin, anything I've got working is down to finding a Stack Overflow question that closely matches my situation.