Ubuntu my dude. I started fiddling with it years ago and it’s my go to when I need a good desktop / gaming system. Any distro is gonna be a steep learning curve and a great way to go about it is to get a crapola system and start banging Linux on it. You’ll be frustrated and then search and find that there is a massive amount of community support for most distros. I use a Raspberry PI 4 running Ubuntu 64 for all my AV needs… Drives the projector and stereo and also serves as a retro gaming over the projector deal. We’re all fed up with windows.

From an electronic tech perspective… I’ve been replacing the LEDs in anything that annoys me with a dull red and a resistor valued to keep it barely visible. It’s a tad more eloquent than tape. Most things don’t need a led at all. I’d love to see manufacturers switch to an e paper solution with a simple “on” or “off” displayed. And I hate standby led’s.