I'd like a distro that's a bit more Linux-y

Not sure what this means. If you want more of a sense of it being "yours," try installing Arch from scratch (in a VM first). Otherwise, maybe try something like CachyOS, PikaOS, or EndeavorOS. Find a Desktop Environment you like and dig in for a bit.

I always recommend trying different ones in a VM first. You can see what the install experience is like, what the DE feels like, etc. and uninstall non-destructively if you don't like it. Once you have a sense of what you like, try a Live ISO on a thumb drive, then install if it feels right.

There's nothing you can do in the more "advanced" distros that you can't do in Mint. It is fully-fledged Linux with a beginner-friendly wrapper.

plain debian maybe? it's a bit more manual but not to the extent of arch, and the netinstaller is really nice

if you are motivated to learn Linux I really can't recommend trying something basic like debian, arch, alpine etc enough

Install one (say bazzite/fedora) to a USB, boot into it, and try it out for a bit. Then wipe the USB and install something else (mint, whatever) and play around with that. Rinse/repeat until you find one you like.

I recommend doing this before your PC dies-dies, then you'll be ready when it does die (or you'll like one so much you pull the plug early, who knows).

Fedora (Gnome or KDE versions) is going to be the most straightforward without a bunch of "extras" to be aware of if you're looking for a desktop. Immutable distros have extra hoops, and anything Ubuntu based has Snap, which you should avoid like the plague.

I know this is a Linux community, but if you're stuck on Windows for whatever reason still, there is a perfectly viable option.

Windows 11 Enterprise IoT LTSC.

There's ISOs and permanent activation at: massgrave.dev

It's basically what Windows should be, and feels like a fresh W7 install. No bloat, no AI, no bullshit. Legit just Edge and Defender, and all telemetry settings can be disabled.

I use it for my daily driver, then every few weeks or months when I see major updates I'm interested in, I hop onto my CachyOS install. I spend a day or so testing to see if everything feels polished/solid enough for me to ditch Windows.

If you list what specific software you use and whether you're willing to try alternatives to any of it, people may be able to give you guidance on how your Linux experience may be. There are lots of people doing music production and digital art on Linux, but it depends on your specifics whether it will work for you or not.

Regarding distros, I've seen many people here make the argument that immutable/atomic distros like Bazzite are not ideal for newbies or more complex use cases. If you're considering immutables because of the comfort that comes with their being more easily recoverable from OS update or configuration issues, I would suggest looking into one of the OpenSUSE distros, either Tumbleweed or Leap. Those two give you many of the advantages of easy recovery without the disadvantages of immutables.

They do this by taking a different approach to recovery. Instead of making the OS root immutable/atomic, which forces you to do a lot of workarounds in certain circumstances, they used the approach of automatic and transparent system snapshots whenever you update or install any software, plus hourly (I believe?).

This is the main factor that led me to choose OpenSUSE for my own personal use. There are other positives such as a reputation for stability, excellent integration of KDE, and YaST, which is their easier to use configuration tool for many system tasks. I'm only at the beginning of my journey though, so I can't fully endorse it yet because I haven't fully settled into it and spent much time daily driving it.

That was posted 3hours ago. By now you could have installed at least 1 "normal" distribution (i.e. pretty much anything that allow you to download packages for your architecture, not LFS) and have some of your work files either copied on /home or better mounted as a directory that is safely on another partition or even disk.

Don't like whatever you installed? Explain us WHY then we can better help you narrow down what you need.

Overall software availability and performances are pretty much NOT distribution specific.

It is rare that a specific feature is not available as driver that can not be installed somehow, same for state of the art software, e.g. something coming right of the repository rather than a built package.

I recommend Nobara OS nvidia version. This comes with drivers during initial installation so no need to follow wiki guides and spend additional time carefully installing stuff. The biggest "plus" is that (assuming you are using discord), they have a pretty large discord server where you can ask questions and stuff.

Even though its just a spin on fedora, I think this community and distro is good for newcomers who also game.

but ideally I'd like a distro that's a bit more Linux-y.

Im not sure how you'd even quantify that? I mean.. there's a lot of variation in linux, so there's not a "standard" linux experience.. DEs like KDE or cinnamon are more Windows-y, and ones like GNOME or Pantheon are more MacOS-y. There's TWMs which to me is what makes the linux experience, but those aren't for beginners and I wouldn't recommend you start with that

Really it doesn't matter what enviroment you use, so honestly im gonna agree with the other comment and just say use one of the big begginer distros like mint cinnamon lol

Garuda does will with Nvidia too.

I do audio and quite enjoy Arch with its 'pro-audio' meta package that installs basically everything. Desktop and laptop both have that, so they have the same plugins and applications -> projects open on both machines just the same.

Linux Mint, Nobara, Bazzite. Just try them. Worried? Then try them in a virtual machine.

in your shoes: i would go with a distro that already includes proprietary multimedia support like elive, but only after asking others who already do multimedia work on linux like veronica explains.