migrating from Windows 7

[Slade Watkins]

Hi all,
Somewhat long post but I think I need some help because while I am
great with tech, I feel overwhelmed and a bit lost due to being semi
out of the game and could use some help.

To make a long story short, I am considering switching my primary
workstation over to Ubuntu from WIndows 7 Pro (with ESU) either later
this year or early next year. I recently did upgrades to the system
hardware (after several years of not touching it and just running
dated hardware) and have purposely avoided using 10 due to it running
horribly. I've tried running 8.1 but there are things that bother me
about it (or otherwise do not work) that I need to get things done.
Obviously I've been pretty active on this list and I do run (a
semi-older version of) Ubuntu LTS on a separate machine just for fun,
but I've never considered switching for full work purposes since
leaving all those years ago.

While I did learn to use a computer on Ubuntu, it has been several
years since I've used it for my daily work. I would say I've become
incredibly reliant on Windows for several things over the years which
frustrates me. Things came to a head recently when I realized that my
days of running Windows 7 with ESU are numbered. Browser support could
end at any time and I'm sure there are countless other issues that
could arise. I've already felt some slowness in booting compared to my
Mac and other modern OSes.

As for what I need to be able to accomplish on a daily basis:
- Gaming: I usually play games on Steam (with the exception of
Minecraft Java), and thankfully - Valve's Proton compatibility layer
is phenomenal so that's not as much of a concern as it was a couple
years ago. Looking at ProtonDB it seems most of my games work with
little to no tweaks, so I think I'm set there.
    - I have an NVIDIA GeForce GT 740 card, which is dated, but I
believe it has drivers for Linux I can snag fairly quickly after
install?
    - Another interesting solution to games that won't work on Windows
that was floated to me by a friend was Steam Link and streaming it
over my local gigabit network. (I also have gigabit internet so
streaming from afar would also be open to me through Parsec or
something too, I suppose.)
- Productivity: I used to use Microsoft Office on a near daily basis
for writing, though as of recently, I've been trying to migrate over
to a mix of LibreOffice, Airtable, and Google Docs. I still have
Office installed as a way to open things that aren't yet compatible. I
could switch to Google Docs, but then I lose some feeling of
privacy/security when it comes to sensitive documents that I can't
necessarily ensure will stay that way.
- Communication: I use Discord to communicate with people regularly. I
believe there is a (somewhat terrible) Linux client that is compatible
with Ubuntu
- Streaming/Recording: I don't do this too terribly often anymore, but
I'll need some way to do video capture in the rare instance where it
may be necessary.
- Video Production: I will be producing videos for YouTube regularly
by the end of this year, and with the level of production quality I'm
trying to hit, I'll need a Linux-compatible NLE that I can try to
learn and get acclimated to. The only one I know of is DaVinci
Resolve.
- VMs: For anything I absolutely cannot run on Linux (which compared
to a long time ago, is few and far between), and for some other
purposes, I'll need a way to spin up a Windows VM rather quickly. I
have a VMware Workstation license for Linux, so I plan to use that. If
that doesn't work, I will need a backup. (I have another computer with
Windows 10 installed, too, but I'd like to avoid needing multiple
computers if absolutely possible).
- Storage Drive: I boot off of a 256GB SSD and store all of my data
(and some games and other software) on a separate 2TB spinning hard
drive. I need this to mount on startup for my own sanity, so
everything works without an issue, and I've no idea how to do that.
- Desktop Environments: How much has the default GNOME interface
changed since 14.04.6 LTS? Should I consider not using GNOME?

I am planning to test software in a VM, and try to migrate my workflow
as best as possible, so if any readers have any suggestions I'd be
happy to try them out whenever I get a chance. I am genuinely
interested in giving it a shot assuming I can find things that can
work for my purposes. If anyone needs to know anything else, let me
know and I'll get back to you as soon as I can.

Cheers,
             -slade