I will look into that thank you!

I think I looked at Bazzite and I can't remember fully why, but I am pretty sure there were some things about it that I wasnt a fan of. But I can definitely give it a revisit.

I do have Kubuntu fully installed on an old laptop, its a gem! I am a huge Linux fan, so I am pretty bummed my PC graphics card isnt playing nice

Thank you for all of the information and resources! I'll take some time to check everything out and add them to my growing arsenal

Thank you! I am definitely planning to look into that, I appreciate the recommendation!

Thank you I'll look into that!

I realize I am quite ignorant when it comes to firewalls. Anything you recommend I look into specifically?

Yea unfortunately, a lot of what I do both job and hobby-wise has me leashed to the internet. But I do appreciate the idea of going offline whenever I can

Thank you so much for such a detailed response and providing resources! I appreciate your effort and help!

Before I do anything more I'm going to read over yours (and a few other comments) a few more times and do some research. But this gives me awesome guidance, thank you. Hopefully I can take control of whatever privacy I am able to with Microsoft while I still use it. I am hoping though to someday make a full switch to Linux with no issue.

Assuming I had the money for it, which graphics card would you recommend? Edit: This is a very viable option that I am willing to try