Honestly, I am envious of you, as well as the person OP posted above. You did something - learning from whatever source you could find best; having the determination and will to go ahead and sought help perhaps knowing too well you might be ridiculed. Because for the people that know this stuff, it is trivial and not worth of botheration. So the help is not enthusiastic - but for the new doer it is so challenging.
I wish I had the energy, time and courage of you all... Maybe someday I will but until then I can only love and admire your passion.
I actually did it. And I have zero knowledge of anything, but Linux is so fantastic. There isn't one thing that I can't do if it bothers me enough.
And even the one proprietary software that I do have to use (for work, plz don't ask) and comes only on Windows, works without flaw once I configure the WINE environment properly.
Tried Debian, Manjaro, Linux Mint, MX linux and loved them all. They are all fantastic. Finally settled on Mint (I know) because it is the right balance of stable and updated for me.