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Windows 12 May Require a Subscription
(www.pcmag.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Hi there! I'm you. My first computer was a TRS-80 in the early 80s, and my daily driver today is Debian (a flavor of Linux). I'm not an IT person, but I've had some skin in the game for a while.
You won't need to purchase a thing unless you have some weird/old hardware where drivers will be a challenge.
There are a million flavors ("distros") of Linux. The most straightforward ones to start with are probably Ubuntu and Mint.
Most Linux distros have a "live CD" version that you can "install" on a thumb drive. That allows you to take the entire OS for a test spin without changing anything on your "main" computer.
Thanks! I have been a gamer for a while now and have primarily been using Steam. One of the main reasons that I have not switched to another OS is I have been worried about compatibility issues.