RE: Call out to the Linux heads out there... Desktop Distros?
Actually, cost is rather irrelevant, I'm just switching up because for the most part the software I use is available on Linux (beyond my gaming needs and a few professional grade tools) and I figure I have no real reason not to be running it anymore. I've actually been using it for a while (I actually had RedHat 4.2 on my PC 12-13 years ago) on and off. My hard drive crapped out so I figured I'd throw on a desktop oriented distribution as my main OS on my laptop and just keep Windows as a secondary OS for when I absolutely need to use it. I was just asking for opinions on here to see who's been using it on their machines and what they suggest for an every day desktop use. I'm pretty sure Mint is more than fine for what I'm currently doing, but thanks for looking into this post, much appreciated.
I personally use Trisquel (https://trisquel.info/) which is a GNU/Linux system for hardcore freedom-lovers as it runs completely without ANY proprietary components. However, I would not recommend this distribution for beginners as it is not very actively developed and rather clumsy to operate.
If you want to have a freedom-friendly operating system, Debian (https://www.debian.org/) is the way to go. If user-friendliness is important, you can go with Ubuntu or Linux Mint even though those distributions include proprietary components by default.
Fedora (https://getfedora.org/) is a RedHat-based system providing the latest bleeding edge packages, which might also be interesting for you. Regardless of how your decision looks like: Please let us know about it and have fun with the penguin. :-)