Run a live version of kubuntu from a usb drive to confirm wifi/lan drivers work and you can access the internet.

Use the package manager! I have a friend that is an amazing programmer he knows computer software well. But he said Linux is a hassle to use because of updates. I was confused then I found out he would download the .tar.gz and install software manually.

Just get used to using the package manager instead of downloading from the websites like on windows. It takes a minute to get used to but life will be much easier.

Just to be safe you may want to copy important files to a cloud storage AND usb drive before formatting the drive.

Also don't overthink this and there is nothing wrong with Kubuntu, but Kinoite is going to be very similar and a little more resistant to n00b tinkering mistakes.

Side note: If part of your prep for an OS wipe involves making copies of critical information, I recommend re-evaluating your backup strategy. You should be able to lose any device at any time without warning, and not lose any data.

Be careful using a USB drive as a backup, they are for temporary storage and fail over time.

don't do kubuntu, it is a terrible place to start for beginners. I don’t think we should be recommending ubuntu at all, I think bazzite is objectively a better starting place.

The mere fact that bazzite and other immutables generate a new system for you on update and let you switch between and rollback automatically is enough for me to say it’s better, but it also has more up to date software, and tons of guides (fedora is one of the most popular distros, and bazzite is essentially identical except with some QoL upgrades).

How common is the story of “I was new to linux and completely broke it”? that’s not a good user experience for someone who’s just starting, it’s intimidating, scary, and I just don’t think it’s the best in the modern era. There’s something to be said about learning from these mistakes, but bazzite essentially makes these mistakes impossible.

Furthermore because of the way bazzite works, package management is completely graphical and requires essentially no intervention on the users part, flathub and immutability pair excellently for this reason.

theres also the fact that ubuntu ships very out of date software... among other things regarding privacy concerns, snaps being terrible, just don't.

I have 15 years of linux experience and am willing to infinitely troubleshoot if you add me on matrix.

I did this same move two years ago. Make a list of critical must have functions. Get a second storage drive like your current one, swap out the old and install Kubuntu. Get those critical apps installed and tested. Create a virtual machine out of your old primary drive. Boot that inside Linux when needed.

You're already using Obsidian, so my suggestion is... Take notes! Take notes on cool software you've discovered, take notes on your settings and configurations, take notes on any issues and bugs you've had to fix, take notes on how to use unfamiliar programs, take notes on Linux terminology. You have a huge personal knowledge base from years of using Windows. Linux is not hard to use, but it takes time to become second nature to you.

Keep in mind that performance from a USB drive is sub-par and not indicative of performance when you install to the SSD in your computer. Don't let that deter you.

Don't let fear of the Terminal / command line plant seeds of fear as you're getting started. Linux nerds love the command line, but you can stick with a GUI for the most part these days. The command line is a force multiplier that you can get to after you're steady.

There will be learning curves. Same as if you switched to a Mac. It's not exclusive to Linux. It's awesome that you're ready to be new to something.

Welcome in from the cold. We have hot cocoa and blankets.

Backups, always do backups of your important stuff, this is not a thing exclusive to Linux, but something many people forget about.

Check compatibility for all your programs before you move. Most Linux programs work on Windows but not vice versa. If you're not in a rush, try switching to programs that have a Linux equivalent before you move so that you'll have less of a culture shock. If you need any killer apps that don't have a Linux equivalent you're going to have to make your peace with that ahead of time, otherwise you're just going to end up switching back.

KDE is a good choice, and Kubuntu should serve you fine; if you end up going with Kubuntu, I would recommend sticking with it for at least half a year or so before considering switching to something else, as that will give you time to really understand what you like and don't like about how Kubuntu and KDE work.

Steam, wine and dosbox with them, you can effectively play any game worth playing. Beyond that I never needed to know.

try not to get yourself in decision paralysis, if you mess something up it'll be pretty easy to redo it anyway because you've learnt it already

Ubuntu is bad. Go with any other distro. I generally recommend Fedora for newcomers. Specifically Fedora KDE Plasma Desktop edition: https://fedoraproject.org/en/kde/

If you fear you might break the system and don't have confidence in fixing it yourself, go with Fedora Kinoite. It's an immutable distro, so you can't break the system as easily as mutable ones: https://fedoraproject.org/en/atomic-desktops/kinoite/

While I don't necessarily like Flatpaks, you can start off by only using them for GUI applications. The most used repo is Flathub: https://flathub.org/

I guess the best distro for gamers is https://github.com/ublue-os/bazzite

I'm no gamer but if I were, I'd go with that. Thus could be helpful as well https://fedoraproject.org/atomic-desktops/

The most important thing: Tell us, the community, what your critical application needs are, and get suggestions for applications to use. So many people jump through fifty hoops because they Google search first and the first thing they try turns out to be deprecated, the second thing they try doesn't work on their system, the third thing they try has everything they need minus the most important part, the fourth thing they try turns out to be proprietary and half-broken, and so on.

You will not find good solutions just by searching around, you honestly, truly, need fucking nerds in this community who live this shit daily to help you know what the genuine best available solutions are. Otherwise you will spend weeks pounding your head against the keyboard using the wrong solutions, not because of anything you did wrong but because there are often so many different implementations of the same thing that it's nearly impossible to know which ones are the ones you need for your use case without directly asking some people.

Once you've been using it a few years, you'll be familiar enough with working solutions to keep track of this kind of thing yourself, but trust me, it takes a while. So please do yourself a favor and make a thread asking which applications people suggest for the distribution you've chosen to use and what kind of framework to install them from (repository or flatpak). You will save yourself a lot of trouble.

Also, as for keeping your backed up data from Windows on a USB, I think best practice is to always keep that kind of info backed up on an external drive, no matter the OS you use, or whether you plan on switching, so if anything fails, the drive will always still be there and readable (unless the drive fails, of course).