Long time Windows user here. I've been a M$ sysadmin at a large healthcare conglomerate for 20+ years. It's all M$ products that I work with.

Anyway...I've dabbled here and there with Linux, ran it in VM's or dual booted, but I've always gone back to my comfort zone of Windows.

I've "recently" (last 6 months") tied Kubuntu and I did like it, but really hated Snap, so about 3 weeks ago I jumped to Mint. Now I know that both distros are Linux training wheels, but I have to say that I'm really impressed! I forget how fast and responsive Linux is without all the bloat that you get with Windows. The main detractor of sticking with Linux before was gaming, but with Lutris now filling in that gap, there's nothing holding me back.

For the first time, I would really recommend Linux to friends and (selective) family.

Long story short, after 25+ years of using Windows almost exclusively, I've finally made the jump and just blew away my entire M$ partition and I don't feel bad in the least.

I'm sure I'll be hanging around this sub for a long time, and I'll make a jump to a more traditional distro like Debian or Suse. but for now, I'm really impressed with how far Linux has come.

Edit- Wow, thank you for all the love and support! I'm very happy to hear that I"m in good company with Mint.

I love all the great suggestions too for Vbox alts and game launcher. Gotta love this community. <3