Debian 12 (bookworm):

• Works without having to troubleshoot all the time - Check
• Reliable - Check
• Customize and install pretty much everything available - Half Check - Since the kernel is from 2022, you won't have the latest versions of some software (eg. KDE), and some features will not be available (eg. changing CPU operation mode)- Unless you develop applications for Linux, or need a specific feature, it shouldn't be a problem.

My previous reply was erroneus. There are reports of those processors working properly, so they probably are fully supported on linux. I suggest you keep at it.

The first response of this thread has some other things to try: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1329587/intel-core-i7-8550u-cpu-frequency-drops-on-high-loads-on-ubuntu-20-04

First, install the OS. Then, install SSH and configure it. Watch a tutorial for it, it's not the simplest thing in the world. If you need not only terminal but also graphical access, then install and configure a VNC or RDP client, the tutorial is probably going to cover this though.

If you just want to learn linux though, it makes more sense to install it on a virtual machine in your windows system, or even on a separate partition.

Prime offload might be same thing? IDK

It's the same thing. Prime offload is a tool made specifically for these optimus laptops (NVIDIA) and other switchable graphics systems (laptops with AMD GPUs)

Unless you have a solid reason to use Wayland, I strongly recommend to use Xorg instead. It works better with switchable graphics, and I think that you will be able to offload your games with it without the need to restart SDDM. In your Arch system, follow the installation instructions for the optimus-manager. Since you're using SDDM instead of GDM, it should work without the need of any tweaks.

I'm not sure if you're aware, but if you wish you can load the entire desktop environment with the dedicated GPU. It's more practical since you don't have to setup your games to be launched through the prime offload command. The caveat is that it uses more power, a downside if you use the laptop unplugged.

i like the dataterm.digital design

the hypothesis that dogs learned some expressions to communicate better with humans makes sense, but some expressions like showing the teeth to express disapproval is present in various mammal populations

kinda looks cool tho, just fridge it and good to go

good

Unfortunately I don't have much faith in this social network until the bot issue is addressed. There is a huge contingent of spambots just waiting for their moments here.

These (Mint, Zorin, etc) and Debian are basically the same. You can use either of them and have mostly the same experience once you finish setting up your system. Exception here goes for Ubuntu that forces Snap. I personally go with a minimal installation of Debian and add what I need along the way. If you don't want to set things up thoroughly, you should use a distro you think has the most functionality out of the box.