Check out Distrosea. Its a website where you can test different Linux distros, before installing anything.

I'm extremely happy with bazzite, it's basically impossible to break, and great for gaming.

Just be aware that it is very focused on flatpaks, so installing anything that doesn't have a flatpak version does require some extra steps.

Nobarra, Bazzite, or CachyOS.

I'd say Nobara or Bazzite are better for 'I install it and it just works.'

Cachy is better for the learning aspect. It's not hard, but there are more choices to make, and you're closer to the Arch wiki and all its excellent resources/tutorials.

I am biased, as I run CachyOS and I love it. I also love how much stuff is in its repos, including everything you need to game optimally, and how easy CUDA is (which is part of what you need for CAD).

Whatever you choose, do not, I repeat DO NOT install Fedora, Debian, or anything that doesn't explicitly support Nvidia laptops by default, out of the box, or you are in for a world of pain. If any guide starts with 'install these 3rd party repos' or so, you have entered a danger zone, and you will hate linux.

Regarding the stuff you want to do: it doesn't matter what distro you pick, they can all run the same stuff anyways.

I would recommend something Fedora-based, because that's most people recommend. It's very sane and user friendly. Bazzite would be the best pick imo, but the classic Fedora KDE variant is also good for most people.

All other of your questions, like gaming stuff, are (or will) be answered anyways by a dozen other people here.

But I can give you some perspective regarding CAD and video editing.

CAD on Linux sucks. Most is made as Windows only, and many people have tried running it through Wine (Bottles) or other janky methods. Don't even try it.
FreeCAD is also not the best choice in my personal opinion, especially if you come from other CAD software. But you can try it of course, maybe you'll like it.

The only "proper" recommendation, and what I also use personally, is Onshape. It's browser based, intuitive to use, has a good UX and many features. Downside: it's proprietary and browser based, including all your files. If the company behind it decides to piss in your face, there is nothing that will stop them.

Video editing is a lot better.
As you already mentioned, there's Davinci Resolve, which is available for Linux too.
I recommend you, especially if you choose Bazzite or any other distro where it isn't available officially, to check out Distrobox and install it from there, so it won't mess up the rest of your host OS.
But maybe try Kdenlive first. It's a one click install and works great too, while being FOSS on top.

I've used both Bazzite and Garuda. Both have an Nvidia install, both are gamer focused, and both have been easy.

Bazzite was immutable, which I ended up not liking.

If you're comming from Windows and don't want to be too much distabilized ZorinOS is probably one of the best.

Other great choice are:

• bazzite
• Linux Mint
• Pop_OS!

However CAD on Linux is not great, there is some free tools but they are so much more limited than the proprietary windows suite of tools. Maybe WinBoat could make your software run good enough.

Bazzite or Fedora.

None of your requirements are distribution specific. I do all (Steam, non Steam, Kdenlive, Blender/OpenSCAD, vim/Podman, LibreOffice, Transmission) of that and I'm running Debian with an NVIDIA GPU. Consequently I can personally recommend it.

First thing I wanna implore you do is create a separate partition on your boot drive for your /home folder. Distro hopping is super normal when you’re starting out, and by separating your home folder makes distro hopping very easy.

Bazzite, like others suggested, is your best bet at a first attempt because it’s much harder to cause irreparable damage with a stray terminal command.

All of the apps you listed should work just fine under Linux. Bazzite ships with Steam and Lutris (it’s a game store aggregator) to get you started with gaming. Use Microsoft 365 online or one of the open sourced alternatives like libreoffice for office apps. The rest of the programs should either be able to be run with wine/bottles/WinApps.

A 1050 is kinda paltry by today’s standards, so just don’t expect a big bump in gaming performance or super snappy emulation.

bazzite is imo by far the safest and most usable distro for beginners. if you fuck something up with your distro you can easily solve the issue without data loss by typing "rpm-ostree reset". thats it, it doesnt get as simple as this anywhere else. bazzite's dev team also tests each image and makes sure its configuration works before pushing it to you, and since each image is exactly the same you basically have your own IT team.

check out the heroic launcher, can run gog games on linux and it's super easy to use

CAD is going to be your achilles heel, unfortunately.

If Blender can do what you need, then you are fine, but if you need CAD for things like architecture, I’m afraid it’s one of the most painful gaps in Linux, currently.

Try Bazzite first. If you find you need more control, then switch to Fedora KDE.

Avoid POP_OS for now. Their new desktop environment is currently in beta and it still has some bugs. When it finally releases later this month and the remaining bugs have been fixed, it may be worth a try. The nice thing about Linux is that it’s very quick and easy to install, so you can try different distros quickly and easily.

I recommend getting yourself a dedicated thumb drive and put Ventoy on it. Ventoy lets you selectively boot to any iso you put on the thumb drive. It’s just wonderful.

I just jumped ship from Windows 11 about a week ago. I have not logged back into my Windows dual boot since because I have not yet found a reason to. Beware of dual booting since Windows updates sometimes hose the boot manager for your Linux partitions. I chose Linux Mint Cinnamon because I wanted a similar look/feel to windows as well as favoring longer and more stable support. Mint is also a good option for Linux noobs (like us!) since it does a lot for you. I play both Steam and GOG games. Steam was easy, just go to to the software manager and download steam then install. GOG was a little different, since they don't seem to have a Linux version of GOG Galaxy. So, I tried both Lutris and Heroic game launchers (available in the software manager) and connected my GOG account. I have been able to get everything to play so far. I cannot speak to video editing software or programming. Use the online version of Microsoft apps if you need them, otherwise, Libre Office is preinstalled with software that does everything the Microsoft Office suite does. Since I run several storage drives in my system that I wanted to auto-mount on boot, I did have to edit my fstab file to make this happen - this was the only thing I needed to do through the terminal and there were some great videos showing what to do, then you just apply what is shown in those videos to your system setup. I really didn't have to do this, Mint is great that i could just click the drive and it would mount it, but if my Steam opened before it was mounted, then it didn't know where my game storage was and I had to restart Steam for it to pick up my game drive. Again, very little terminal usage was needed on my side. My printer just works, wireless, bluetooth headset works, etc. So far, I say thumbs up for Linux Mint Cinnamon!! If I go a month without hitting a wall and logging into my Windows install, I will probably just totally remove my Windows installation.

My recommendation is, that you read ALL the other post about the same topic. Because there are plenty of answers to your question there.

Surprised I haven’t seen a mention of ZorinOS yet.

Elementary OS, or something like Garuda or Debian with either Gnome or KDE desktops.

zorin is likely the easiest out of box distro you can get but its not a gaming distro. if gaming is that important I would consider either just using a gaming distro or dual booting one.

If you are coming from Windows, I would say Mint for sure. I have friends that are 20 using it and my parents in their 70's use it. Both seem to like it and even find it easier to use in quite a few respects.

Linux Mint

https://slrpnk.net/post/21305064

I recommend trying CachyOS. It's easy to use and it works out of the box and offers great support for your type of hardware out of the box too. As for the use cases you need linux, it's more about software that you run on linux and not the OS itself in most cases. Also I have same kind of hardware as you have and I've been experiencing major issues with fedora and fedora-based distros like Bazzite and Nobara. I've seen so many people there recommending those so beware!

For new people i think you're good off on something debian or fedora based. if you're willing to learn a lot and fix things when you have problems, an arch based distro is both versatile and a great place to learn such things. if youre interested in a very unique take on a computer interface arch omarchy is popular right now. but ultimately fedora and debian are gonna be the hassle free linux environments compared to something like cachyos or garuda, and id recommend against going with those if youre gonna use an arch base because they introduce their own issues. if you go with an arch base just do vanilla arch and if that seems intimidating then youre def better off using something less cutting edge

You already got some good recommendation. I'm just giving you some tips regarding your needs.

-Can play steam games(since steam is compatible, this is mostly always checked(I think))

Steam is indeed Linux native, some games also have Linux builds. But most run through proton (this is a lot of the time still clicking install and just run). You can check protondb.com/ if your favorite games run on Linux. (Sometimes the comments recommend a fix)

-Can play other games outside steam(like from GOG where you download the setup. Heard about apps like "bottles" but idk how good it will be)

For Gog games I recommend heroic game launcher, it can manage epic and Gog games and run them with proton. (I think it also does Amazon games, but never tried)

-Video editing softwares (Resolve works but I might want to use another)

Resolve is indeed Linux native. A nice project to look at maybe is kdenlive

-Can run a CAD software(I do like designing and stuff so I do look forward for this(I have used some on windows and don't know how its will be in linux. I know blender works but it's more of a modeling than CAD))

I do some 3d modeling myself for 3d printing. So anything web-based works of course, like thinkercad and on shape. I got fusion 360 to run for about a month with wine before it broke. I moved to freecad it's Linux native and very powerful. It is a other workflow then some other cad software.

-Programming(I don't think this will be a problem)

I also don't think this is a problem

-Microsoft like apps(Spreadsheet and stuff, Just need to be able to do work)

There are obviously options like libre office or only office. But if you really need Microsoft office for work you can try the web versions or something like winboat. Winboat runs a full install of windows 11 in a docker container. So for apps like Microsoft office or works better then wine.

-Not sure if this is needed but I do sail the seven seas sometimes

I would look into running pirated software in containers. Keep in mind proton/wine is not a container.

Al software can be installed using your distro's "app" store. On Linux you first always check your systems software store/packages manager to download and install software. (I see new Linux users download stuff from website's and then having problems with installing software pretty often)

I would pick something beginner friendly like pop os or bazite.

since you're on a laptop with a dedicated nvidia GPU DO NOT use Mint, Ubuntu, or hell anything Debian based. it won't go well for you.

As other's have said Nobara, Bazzite, Cachy, or Pop

Technically all distros support Nvidia since it's a kernel thing, however some of them have better out of the box experience, so it would be wiser to go with one of those distros. For gaming, it's usually better to have more recent drivers, if you play different varieties of games and some of them are newer titles. Though depending on the games, even Debian could be a suitable option.

If you don't want to learn under-the-hood features, Bazzite could be a nice option for you. If you want familiarity with Windows, you might want to go with KDE as your desktop environment. However don't be afraid of trying new angles if you like the general idea of a distro. So Pop!_OS might look different than Windows, it's also a solid distro.

If you'll need Microsoft programs or some Windows-only programs, choose something you can install Winboat on it, which isn't currently usable for Bazzite, until the devs bring Podman support for it. Know that, Winboat is not the only interface you can install Windows programs, it just makes things much easier. So depending on the programs, Bazzite still could be a good option for you.

People here seem to recommend Arch-based distros but I wouldn't start with them, at least until you get some familiarity with Linux in general. There is no problem using them, but a beginner couldn't handle if something goes wrong after an update (usually happens with Nvidia). It does not happen a lot, but even once is enough for people who can't handle it.

There is nothing wrong with Linux Mint. You might find it quite straightforward. It does not have the latest Nvidia drivers most of the time but this might not be a problem for you. If you play newer titles though, then it's probably not the distro you would want.

When someone is switching from windows to Linux the first distro I recommend is Linux Mint. Mint feels similar enough to Win7 that any windows user can drop in and learn it in no time, my, tech illiterate, 76 year old mother has been trying a Mint live USB and has needed very little help.

I say start with Mint and get to know Linux, then if you want to try other distros you can, but at least you'll have a solid foundation to jump off from.

What ever you choose, welcome to Linux!

Just a reminder, there is 0 mainstream CAD software native to Linux. MAYBE you can get one of the mainstream software working on Linux. Or browser solutions like Onshape or TinkerCAD.

If you do programming and don’t want to go through hoops of containers and sandboxes, avoid immutable OS like Bazzite.

If you want to use your computer to finish projects, not starting a new project, avoid arch-based.

If you want “power user features” like right-clicking on a folder to open a terminal, avoid GNOME.

Your GPU is borderline getting dropped by official Nvidia driver btw.

Sure, Pop!OS'll likely be fine.

AntiX first sprang to mind before reading further through your list.

Mint, MXLinux, and SuSe also came to mind.

Not sure how well each and every part sought is covered. Though probably almost any distro will do.

PS: https://distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=All&category=Beginners&origin=All&basedon=All&notbasedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&package=All&rolling=All&isosize=All&netinstall=All&language=All&defaultinit=All&status=Active#simpleresults

I know it has been mentioned in passing a few times but I would highly recommend CachyOS. Just to emphasize how good that is.

Avoid Mint.

install gentoo