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Microsoft starts testing ads in the Windows 11 Start menu
(www.theverge.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
Linux Mint is a good distro to try out!
Personally I would suggest Fedora with KDE.
It seems to me more robust with hardware support, it's indirectly backed by a major company, it gets updates often to stay compatible for gaming, and one click gets you proprietary drivers/software support.
This. Then if you want to expand your horizons, OpenSUSE.
Yeah starting with Mint and then go further if you want to makes sense.