Hmm yeah I was thinking about possibly trying to boot from a usb. Haven't done that with linux since the 90s, I guess I assumed the linux os thingie would be too big or too slow. Maybe I'll give that a try, thanks for the suggestion.

Yeah I've been out of the loop with tech for fuckin decades. Bought the laptop a while back without knowing about the Nvidia ting. TBH I mostly start the laptop up maybe once a week for spreadsheets, calibre, and as a file transfer medium. I'd planned on using it for gaming too but then I got a steam deck. But yeah, there's some stuff I can't easily do on steam deck and I'm really getting sick of fuckin windows. Every time I start the machine it's trying to install some new AI shit or something. I don't need that, just want a working computer!

But you're right - next time I buy a laptop - if I need to - I'm thinking AMD for sure.

Edit - also because of my living situation (I don't live in a house, all my electric comes from a solar panel) power consumption is a real issue for me. And that laptop is power hungry.

[–] pathief 3 points 1 day ago

Trying from a USB or virtual machine is just a good idea in general. Use Ventoy to put several distros into a single USB stick and try them out. Try your hardware, check which UI you like the most.