what's the best way to get started with a desktop (laptop) linux?
caveat; i've used linux in the best from debian to fedora to ubuntu to redhat on servers but this is the first time i want to actually switch to using it on my laptop because win11 is increasingly bad but also because i love it.
i'm just lost as to where to start. i'm currently looking at laptopwithlinux.com, system76.com, and thinkbooks. a lot of them come with specific distros, though i'm much more partial to debian than ubuntu. is it generally able to switch between a different one without too much hassle?
i know some hardware but i'm not an EXPERT (with drivers and such)
any thoughts? hopefully this is an alright community for this question; it was the closest community when searching that i could find that seemed like it fit.
I bought my Lenovo Legion a few months back, and the plan all along was to nuke Windows and install Linux Mint on it. Worked like a charm as Mint has done for me for the past 10 years or so.
No compatibility issues, but I chose to install a better wifi driver, but it worked OKish before that too (it was just a bit too slow for my taste).
The Lenovo hotkeys for controlling cooling schema and keyboard lights worked out of the box.
I don't see any reason why ThinkPad would be less compatible than Legion.
For reference, I have a variant of this one, only with ISO keyboard and 32GB RAM. I highly recommend it; good screen, good keyboard, nice performance, small and easy for travel, and relatively quiet cooling system. If I had to point at a downside, I wish it had at least one more USB-A port. Plenty of USB-C, though.