Linux

Congrats on your jump! May your move be a positive one!
I'm on the Arch side of things and don't touch Gnome a whole lot, so I probably won't be a lot of help, but one thing I might suggest is to be prepared for the sheer modularity of it all. It's no longer a Windows issue, likewise, it's not generally a Pop_OS issue, it's a specific app's issue. If your desktop misbehaves, it's likely Gnome (or Gnome extensions), if games aren't loading in general, it's probably Proton/Wine. I say this because it helps immensely to narrow down where an issue or incompatibility lies.

The modularity also has some really cool benefits to it though! If you find that you don't like your file explorer, install a different one. If you find that you prefer Plasma's customization but not ready to make a leap off of Gnome, install it alongside Gnome so you can try it out and see what you like or don't like about it.

The other thing I'd suggest is to be ready to rewire your brain on what apps you default to, just like you're doing with Lemmy & Reddit, but on a mass scale. It can be subtle differences like gNotes vs. Notepad, or as extreme as Krita vs. Photoshop. Getting familiar with the FOSS replacements for many of the common apps that you use will take you much further than trying to get familiar Windows apps to work on Linux.

Gaming: There's a lot to learn, but if you take it bites at a time, it'll make sense. Start with games on Steam, play some Windows games on Linux, note how freaking cool that is. Start to make use of ProtonDB.com to make some games work that might not out of the box, or optimize games you currently have working based on people's suggestions.
Small jump, ProtonUp, here you can install various runners, compatibility tools, and get your hands messy with the runner side of things. While I don't need ProtonUp very often, understanding runners can be invaluable, since you might benefit from using a GE version, or take for instance, when Overwatch 2 came out, it wouldn't run on Wine, but you could copy the runner from Bottles into Lutris and play off of that.
Then the big leap: Lutris and Bottles. These two are fairly similar, Lutris is predominantly for games that aren't in Steam, and Bottles is generally for applications. I use Bottles very little, because using Linux stuff on Linux will always treat you better than trying to get a Windows thing to work on Linux. Lutris has scripts to help install games for you, but its interface allows for more exploring what those properties on ProtonDB actually are and what they do for you. At this point, you can customize some of the compatibility tools to fit your liking or contribute back to others so they can also play things that may not already have a premade script.

Last and certainly not least: 3 expectations \

1. Be ready to be a self starter: if things go wrong, be ready to read some (fabulously written) documentation, pulling up some (well organized) logs, and doing some good old fashioned research. \
2. Do not be afraid to reach out for help: The Linux community is a passionate one that wants to see others thrive in it. If you have issues with Lutris, why not hop on their discord and get help directly from them for free? Most paid services (Windows) don't even offer that kind of support! \
3. People are people. I know this sounds obvious, but while Linux is fantastic and its community is wonderful, try not to take it personally if someone's difficult. Most people that support the Linux ecosphere are volunteers, they're not paid, some of them are really not good with people, and there's always a lot to do. Be patient with folks, temper expectations, and be ready to get your hands dirty with your computer, because while someone might be able to help guide you, it's going to be you pushing the buttons.
   
   Congrats again, my friend, and welcome to a big new world <3

Learning the specific program you're looking to troubleshoot will help a ton.

Searching "how to make a bookmark" might show you how to make a bookmark on your browser of choice, but it might also show you how to make a bookmark on a browser you're not using, or you might even get a tutorial on how to make a real bookmark.

Searching "how to adjust mouse sensitivity in Linux" won't get you very far. It would be best to search for the desktop environment you're using.

PopOS uses the gnome desktop environment. A desktop environment is in charge of most settings you'll want to modify initially. Toolbar, resolution, shortcuts, etc.

Searching for things along those lines, ending the search term with "in gnome" or "in PopOS" will direct you to better results.

First off, congrats on making the jump!

I know switching OS's can be jarring & feel like you're having to turn your head inside-up & outside-down to figure stuff out. So be patient, long-time Linux users didn't get it right the first time, either.

One place that helped me early on, was alternativeto.net. It lists alternatives to a specific program, and lets you filter by OS. If you're not sure about alternatives to [insert program] that run on Windows/MacOS, but not on Linux, this is a decent place to start.

When you run into problems and google for answers and they're all on locked reddits ask here so we can start to rebuild that knowledge base.

I switched right before Windows 11 released after using it on and off in either VMs or on my laptop (that I rarely used). What really helped was all the Proton stuff that Valve was doing, which meant that one of my only excuses for not just getting a second drive to put linux on as primary boot was gone. Been great since then! Enjoy the new experience and once you get past the "how do I do [windows thing] in linux" phase make sure you explore all the cool new stuff you can do in linux that isn't easy in Windows (like package management for installs and upgrades)!

I used PopOS for quite a while and really liked it. It's a functional and stable system, although their custom theme has bugs sometimes.

No special advice, just good luck amd have fun.

I hadn't heard about Emily. Good for her.

Her videos are my favorites on LTT.

My biggest piece of advice would be to research flatpaks and/or snaps if you use proprietary things like Steam, Spotify, Discord, etc. You don't have to use flatpaks/snaps, but they'll fix any issues like the famous LTT Linux challenge where dependency issues with steam nuked his desktop. They'll also get you the latest and greatest if you need the bleeding edge of any particular piece of software.

Secondly, Pop is based on Ubuntu, so if you can't info you need then searching about the info for Ubuntu might answer your question.

Also, just like Power shell or Cmd Prompt on Windows with admin settings, when you're in the terminal as root (including w/ Sudo or Doas) there's no safeties. Distructive commands will run if you tell them to.

Last, if you got the time, try to figure out all the functionality you want out of your device before you need it. Simple things you want such as a screenshot tool are nice to have when you need it, as apposed to going on a mini adventure to find one when you need it.

Good luck!

I'd recommend using flatpak instead of snaps. Snaps (the Ubuntu proprietary application manager) does a lot of weird things and the apps take up a ton of space. Also updating them had been pretty tedious.

Flatpaks however have been painless for me and seem to just work.

https://flatpak.org/setup/Ubuntu

Everyone already gave a ton of helpful tips. The things I thought I should add is System76 started an Official Pop OS magazine on kbin that you can join https://kbin.social/m/[email protected]

And if you ever wanna dive into the Linux terminal and learn how to use the Bash CLI I recommend this book the author made free on his website. https://www.linuxcommand.org/tlcl.php

Edit: System76 moved to lemmy.world apparently

Not a big fan of the POP OS installer. Installed it on my brothers PC and one of the weird things was that the partitioning had to be done manually and while it did tell you how you have to partition it, it gave me the wrong size for one partition and that's why I was stuck for a while since it wouldn't install because of that. I then installed EndeavourOS on his PC (which is what I use aswell) and the installer they use is really great. It's arch based tho, which might be something you don't want.

This could have just been a me problem, but if you're using it for gaming I suggest installing Steam from their website instead of using the flatpak. For some reason, the flatpak install decided to not use my graphics card anymore, while the debian install has been fine. I was never able to troubleshoot exactly what was going on, though, so ymmv.

Nice! My first distro was Kubuntu back in 2016. Pop OS is pretty solid and a good distro to try out, too- just stay curious and you'll probably find yourself hopping around from thing to thing for a while. Enjoy

I probably switched back and forth from Linux and Windows 5 or 6 times at this point, but last week decided to switch from Windows to Fedora on my home pc.
I still keep windows on my laptop because of uni, but so far I am really happy with Linux at home.
Almost everything is browser based now, and for games on Steam you can use Proton so the only things you loose are proprietary programs that insist on being only Windows and Mac compatible.

I switched my home computer to pop os last year. It works really well for my uses. I'm not a computer programmer or in the tech industry but it does what I need it to do.

If I could get Microsoft one drive to work, it would be absolutely perfect for me.

PopOS is great and it would have been great if I knew about it. My first try to use Linux on my PC was short because I didn't manage to install the nvidia drivers correctly.

Everything should just work without any changes. Altough you might need to enable adaptive sync/VRR/gsync if your system supports it.

Edit: And if you need to solve a problem, also look at docs for other distros. E.g. the Arch wiki has many examples that work (similar) on PopOS

I can heartily recommend https://linuxjourney.com/

It'll guide you through essentials towards more advanced topics - all while thoroughly explaining all the steps in a very intuitive manner. Helped me through basic training in Linux, so to say.
While, if memory serves, it is Ubuntu based, you should be able to directly apply in PopOS.

Oh, and a word of advice, be prepared to tinker and experiment. Its an initial steep learning curve. But man is it ever satisfying reaching the level where you, by heart, throw commands at the terminal to do what you want!

Glhf!

Installing it should be simple, but if you're not experienced with installing an OS, id highly recommend you disconnect any drives you currently have while you put in the new one, just until you're done installing. Then feel free to (power off and) reconnect them. Just to save yourself the possiblity of overwriting or erasing and data. You'll feel more confident if there's no risk.

Other than that just come ask for help when you need it and try to be specific.

Hope you enjoy it! The biggest thing to keep in mind is that you've been using windows a long time, and have a lot of experience with it. It'll take awhile using linux before you're as competent with it as you are with windows. I see a lot of new users go through some version of "I've been using this for a week, why is it so much more confusing than the software I've been using for over the past two decades?"

Welcome to the club. Others have given great advice here, but if I was to add one thing, sometimes you'll find other distribution documentation can help you with the one you're using. I'd like to think most Arch users (myself included) came to the distro after using their Wiki documentation for years.