Thank you all for the many replies!

I’ll summarize it as followed:

• Ubumtu: one does not use Ubuntu any more
• Linux Mint: always a good start
• Fedora: also always good and would be good for a Thinkpad
• Bazzite for gaming
• Gnome really is not for everyone

Since I already tried Fedora, I’m going with Linux Mint for the moment.

(In fact, the installation of Mint is running right now and I’m using the whole SSD, no windows boot manager partition will survive!!!)

Since Mint is Ubuntu-based: do you know if Mint will have the same AI crap in the OS?

AI backed into the OS? No thanks, that’s really a reason to NOT go for Ubuntu. Edit: corrected typo

Thank you very much for pointing that out. Highly appreciated. That’s exactly the VPN case for my setup. I’ll keep that in mind.

what made you decide to use Fedora and not Ubuntu. Or Linux Mint?

I’m not a big fan of Gnome on Fedora either. Everything is just so big and needs so much space. CachyOS is a tad to new for my taste for using it as a daily driver.

and sorry for the ragebait. I’m just a little bit frustrated and had to write it down

Thanks, I’ll give Immich a try.