Actually, the macOS software license specifically mentions to install macOS only on hardware built by Apple itself. The line is not imaginary lol

Technically not. MacOS wouldn’t be what it is today if apple didn’t get any money out of it. They get that money from selling the hardware the software is exclusively on among other things. Let’s say i. e. Ubuntu: When it first got released then it relied on its owners personal revenue for a long time. None of the hardware sold financed Ubuntu, because Ubuntu didn’t earn money through hardware. It’s obvious that the money earned by apple through its sales also go back into macOS, because if the hardware didn’t make any money, macOS ceases to be developed as well.

With OPs logic, every software is technically free. But no, you pay for macOS with the hardware you purchase. You purchase the hardware because of the OS, not because of the hardware. Technically, you could spin the argument and say that you pay for the OS, and for it to be run a certain way and the hardware that comes with it is free. If that sounds like bogus it’s because it is bogus.

Sure, and if you got modern hardware with Windows 7 on it in 2009 then you had up-to-date free Windows since 16 years.

Bruh what? Did you really just say that not having to buy software exclusive to a certain hardware makes the software free?

That’s like saying the OS on a PlayStation is free because you only had to pay for the PlayStation.

Nah man, you purchased the OS with the hardware. That’s why it’s exclusive.

Linux is free open source mate.

Classic recommendations are Linux Mint and Ubuntu, I think Zorin as well, but there are many others. For starters which one you use won’t matter too much, because more likely than not you’re gonna switch again.

I started with Ubuntu because it’s easy to use and I was new. One can argue over the pros and cons. I’m looking at Manjaro at the minute, an easy to install and beginner friendly Arch distro. Really, you can just try most of them out online though. Check out DistroSea and you can actually emulate the OSs with several desktop environments right in your browser.

This goes for life as well. Education? RTFM, studying is a skill and it can be done well as well as ineffectively. There’s many methods nowadays on how to study efficiently, as opposed to cramming knowledge into your short term memory through brute forced memorization (not that all knowledge from school is necessary to be kept).