Thanks for all the info! My only experience so far has been with Ubuntu, so I’m cautiously branching out. Experimenting with WMs is definitely something I’m going to do later; I don’t think I’m quite there yet :P
I'm planning on putting linux on a gaming laptop (an Asus TUF f15 from 2021), and I'm having a hard time deciding which distro to go with. I'm particularly interested in Nobara and Garuda, but any recommendations or advice are welcome.
I'd consider myself a novice at *nix, so I'm looking for something that'll just work with a minimum of troubleshooting. From what I've read the biggest barrier to "just working" is probably going to be the GPU(s); for battery life reasons I need to be able to use the Nvidia card for games and the integrated GPU for less intensive tasks. If anyone could tell me about their experience with TUFs or getting [Nvidia Optimus](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Optimus) to work on linux I'd appreciate it.
Wow, your guide may have just made my decision for me. Thank you so much for all the info, it’s incredibly helpful for a novice like myself!