

I started using Linux desktops at work around 5 or 6 years ago, and even since then, the experience has improved greatly.
I’ve been on various distros with KDE over the past couple of years, but from what I’ve seen in passing, Gnome “just works” really well with most distros that use it. KDE requires some tweaking occasionally, but since 5.27, it’s been rock solid for me, and the KDE team seems really dedicated to making Plasma 6 stable and easy to use.
You might want to fire up a VM or throw Ubuntu on an old laptop and see how it feels. It really has gotten a lot better for the average user, and something like Mint, imo, is really easy to pick up and just use.
Personally, I really like customization, and I work as a DevOps engineer (formerly linux sysadmin), so I don’t mind getting really deep into the OS if necessary. But I don’t think you have to if you want to have a good experience.
Depending on how much you drive and how expensive your local energy bill is, the economics can work out better than you think.
I usually charge at home, and my equivilant cost per gallon (assuming 25mpg) is about $0.50/gallon.
If I drive 1000 miles per month, that’s about $140/month I’m saving. If gas prices increase to $6/gallon, which I’m sure they will eventually, that’s $220/month.
It doesn’t justify a new Tesla, but used ones are getting cheaper finally.