I'm also a Linux newbie who just installed Mint. Initially I just put it onto a flash drive for a taster. I liked it so much that I decided to allocate some disk space to dual boot it with Windows 11.
I haven't committed to it fully for the moment, but I can definitely see me drop Windows for it at some point.
It's awesome. So customisable and free of bullshit like W11 has. It also has a clean, modern UI that I'm a big fan of.
I think I'm going to continue using Windows for gaming right now, and Linux for everything else.