Windows Alternative Recommendations

This post is mostly to gauge the community and get some honest recommendations on what might make for the smoothest possible transition.

I’ve been a heavy Windows user for decades. Most of my gaming is through Steam, both modded and unmodded, with the occasional Xbox Launcher game, some standalone titles, and some emulator use through EmuDeck with legally backed-up copies of my own games, lightly modded. Beyond gaming, I also use UE5 for game development, Blender for modelling, the Adobe suite, Magix Vegas Pro 23, and a handful of other creative tools here and there.

A little backstory for context (should you want to know what led to my absolute frustration): Over the last few months, Windows has become increasingly aggressive in ways that are honestly starting to push me away from the platform entirely, outside of still needing OneDrive for file-sharing with my company.

For example, I use a local Windows Hello PIN, but if I’m not immediately connected to the internet, Windows throws an error telling me I need to reset my PIN. It then opens the reset window, only to tell me I’m not connected, as if it didn’t just create the problem itself. The only way around it is to connect to the internet. After a 25-minute update today, the issue somehow got worse. Even while connected, Windows still tried to force me to reset my PIN. When I hit “Cancel,” because resetting it warns that I’ll need to sign back into everything, Windows went ahead and signed me out of everything anyway. Spectacular little circus trick.

On top of that, every update over the last few months seems to reset my default apps back to Microsoft-approved options like Edge, Windows Zip (or whatever it's called), and Windows Media Player, even after I repeatedly change them back. Chrome is set as my default browser, yet hyperlinks still insist on opening through Edge. Randomly, my Google-related accounts (including the one I use to sign into Office) get signed out after Windows updates, almost like anything not wearing a Microsoft badge is being treated as suspicious. This is further made worse by the fact that recently for no reason, Microsoft was like "Hey, so you now need to add an @ outlook email to your account" like some sort of weird "security patch".

The strangest part is that this isn’t isolated to one machine. My PC, my partner’s computer, and even our new Xbox ROG Ally X have all had strange Windows-related behavior after updates. If this were happening on one system, I’d suspect malware or a bad install. But across three different devices, it feels more like the operating system itself has decided to become a very controlling roommate.

TL;DR: Windows has become increasingly aggressive over the last few months, especially after updates. It keeps signing me out of non-Microsoft products and services, resetting defaults back to Microsoft apps, forcing account/PIN nonsense, and generally making the experience feel less like my computer belongs to me and more like some controlling ex-girlfriend trying to weasel her way back into my life.

So, with all that said, does anyone have recommendations for a smooth transition to Linux or Ubuntu while still keeping a somewhat Windows-like experience, especially for gaming, creative work, modding, and development? I’ve heard Zorin OS and Linux Mint are both solid options, but I’d love to know what the community actually recommends.