This would depend on the distro you use. Most distros will require you to enable a non-free repository before you can install anything that isn't Foss or open source from the official repos. You could also use an FSF approved distro. Keep in mind, the FSF will only approve distros that don't include any non-free anything in the official repos. Besides that, you just have to know the licensing before you install it.

Depends on the distribution, many package managers can filter by license. So you can find anything that doesn't have an open source license.

The language you want is “nonfree” in Debian derivatives.

For #1, I've made the realization that most distros are lightweight skins or addons on top of another distro. Most of the time, if you start with the base distro, all you have to do is install some apps, change some configurations, and suddenly you have that other distro. It is much easier than doing a reinstallation.

If you filter out all of these distros that only do a little on top of an existing, you're left with a quite small number actually. I'd bet it's less than 10 that are not super niche. Fedora, Arch, debian, gentoo, nixos are the big ones. There's some niche ones, like void Linux and Alpine.

So I'd say if you try all of those, you don't need to try any more 😁

For the #4, the file extension can be seen just as a note, a little tag that'll help you (or anyone else that will receive your file) remember which program you should use to successfully open the file.

From the viewpoint of your computer, in fact, a file is just a sequence of bits and every program can open every file, only it will not be able to find what it expects and actually do something useful with it, just as you can open a book written in any possible language: in most cases you will unable to undestand it, in some others you will be able to read it without any problem.

The "concept" of extensions was than introduced to allow your file manager (Explorer for Windows, Finder for macOS, Dolphin for KDE or Nautilus for GNOME) to know which program to launch when you double click on a certain file through a simple association table (that you can edit in your system preferences).

In regards to Linux you can sometimes read that file extensions are not a thing, but this is just because in the commandline you launch a specific program that you personally point to a certain file, so there is no file manager that needs to guess which app should be launched to open the document you just double clicked on.

That said, I think that should be pretty clear that in a Desktop context (like in a Personal Computer) that double click on a file situation pretty much applies to Linux too, so extensions will be useful and respected by the file manager you'll find installed in your distro of choice, even if it can use other means when that is missing.

For #2,

For gaming, if you use steam, you may not face more than the following:

• game does not work with no well known way to resolve. You can find this out by checking protonDB
• game does not work because it needs to enable some options. Very easy to fix, and you can find the options on proton db for each game.
• does not work because you didn't setup steam right. You often need to enable proton, which in short is steam's emulator or windows
• does not work because your gpu drivers did not install. This depends on distro and they should all have a guide on how to do it, but usually it is just a matter of installing something.

For programming, you will love your life because everything programming is way easier on Linux.

1. I don't distrohop. Instead I just use what works for me and what I find comfortable.

2. You will eventually need to use the terminal. And it will be overwhelming at first. But eventually the learning curve flattens a little when you get more comfortable not breaking your system ;þ

3. Can't comment

4. File extensions are, in essence, nothing but a convention. You don't even need them in Windows, really (You can open a file with any program, for example, you will just not get anything useful from it). So it's far from a big deal.

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Just come ask here when you have trouble, and we'll try to help.

When troubleshooting, the biggest thing is searching the web honestly. But some more things to help you out: look for logs. Linux has loads of logs and sometimes can tell you how to fix the problem.

Logs may not be immediately apparent. Some programs have their own log files that you can look into. Sometimes, if you run the program from the terminal, it'll print out logs there. Otherwise, you read look through journalctl, although this has logs for everything so might be harder to search.

Another useful tip, particularly for system tools and terminal tools, is manual pages. Just run man ls and replace ls with any command, you'll get the documentation on how to use that tool.

Good question! Someone let me know when there's an answer.

The arch wiki is difficult to use for beginners. Each page is single topic. It is not a guide. Using it daily, it takes at least a month to understand it well enough to "build your own guides". If you want to do that kind of deep dive, jump on in. If not, you'll have a better time using just about any distro other than arch.

BTW. If you do decide to take that route. Don't become one of those miscreants who "uses arch btw" It's a red flag for someone who doesn't know wtf they are talking about.

First time Linux user you mean?

I wouldn't recommend it, unless you can navigate the terminal well. When you install arch, it installs no desktop environment, only the ability to talk to a terminal.

It's technically possible and very doable with some googling, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Fedora is what I've got on my Thinkpad right now and so far it seems pretty good! Silverblue is very intriguing to me but I chose not to go with it because I need to be able to modify aspects of how the lower system works (using JACK for audio for music production purposes; afaik this is not really supported through Flatpak). Compared to Arch or Nix OS or whatever else that's popular with the hardcore Linux enthusiasts, Fedora is just right for someone that needs a working system to just get stuff done.

Once you’re comfortable in the rpm world, rhel is literally free for individuals.

You can try to see which mounts get exposed with

showmount -e IP

To see if the actual shares are working.

It could be that only the installer has issues. If you're dual booting have you tried launching the already installed program from your windows partition?

Otherwise I would try launching the installer from the wine command line to see if it gives you a specific error there.