Many Linux vendors ship telemetry. Telemetry does not necessarily mean something bad though. In fact, it can help developers to squash bugs.

In addition to astrogeek's sound advice about making the decision all the way, once the decision is made all the way and you are doing it, I find that a console environment (without X11, wayland, or a pointer device) is more productive for me because it doesn't have distractive click bait dancing around the margins of my research. The only thing I really need X11 for is for viewing images and videos--if I'm not viewing images and videos, then the console is for me. Audio works from the console, so I can still listen to some classical or jazz while working, when in the mood. Oh yeah: sell the TV.

It doesn't, but when it comes to proprietary OS such as Android, iOS, windows, etc, it usually does and it's usually opt-out and/or not easy or intuitive to configure. Debian, for example, has telemetry (popcon), but it's opt-in and fairly innocuous.

I generally prefer Linux, but, my audio and graphics cards on my Lenovo Legion perform better on Windows 11. I also run Minecraft on the Legion from time to time. I suck at gaming.
For general computing on my other PCs I run Linux. Everything just works(TM).

This link has appeared in other threads, but a 'windows vs. linux thread is a suitable place for it also. All the links (from Slashdot & Ars Technica) make interesting reading. microsoft-will-take-nearly-a-year-to-finish-patching-new-0-day-secure-boot-bug

Windows was really remarkable and one of the best options as a desktop OS for general use until Coherent (From Mark Williams group: brilliant work!) became available. When Linux flew past Coherent it became a coin toss. By the mid 1990s it was no longer a question, Linux was clearly better.

I game a little. Mu sons (grown) game a LOT! All of the best games we run live on Linux as well or better than on Windows. (Minetest, Bevy, etc.) I tend to prefer DOSBOX games, and most of them run under DOSBOX on Linux better than they ever did on MS-DOS! That said, one still runs some Windows for art, the other for education.

I have been network and sysadmin for mixed systems (RHEL, Debian, Windows domain and servers, desktops, all living together in harmony: once I cracked whip on them: second sign of the apocolipse?). At home I run ONLY Linux, because I really like sanity.

One of the bigger reasons that recently hit me for the superiority of linux was: patch Tuesday.

Every 2nd Tuesday, M$ patch the previous month's zero days, whatever other other bugs & accumulated detritis that they had pointed out to them.

Apple doesn't have a patch Tuesday equivalent, because it patches zero day flaws when it feels like it, and not before.

Linux doesn't have it because patches become available usually within a week, and patches required are much fewer.

That is a factor, but the bigger one is that Linux distributions allow you, in fact ENCOURAGE you, to control the schedule for your patches to be applied. With Linux it is up to the user or sysadmin/owner of the platform. With Windows and those little fruit machines they want to control that FOR you, giving you little or no say in the matter.

"At the Ignite 2015 event, Microsoft revealed a change in distributing security patches. They release security updates to home PCs, tablets and phones as soon as they are ready" (Wikipedia).

I have discovered that Microsoft has "stealth edited" my permissions on my Windows desktop. I discovered this by attempting to edit a Word document in Libreoffice and kept getting file errors as I attempted to save it. I went in and discovered that Microsquish has changed file permissions after a "feature update" and no one was told. Also on both my wife's old Windows laptop (I converted her to a Macbook Air), and on the NUC's attached to the downstairs TVs, the UPDATE TO WINDOWS 11 NOW feature has gotten utterly annoying. I went into registry and applied a hack, and it seems to have stopped if for now. BUT if you are going to change file permissions, I would appreciate being told! So, I decided to order a System 76 Thelio Mira with an 8 core AMD 7700X processor and an AMD 6600 video card. No more Windows desktop for me.

IME they seem to be ready every patch Tuesday over here. I've only had windows (again) for a year or so. For drastic emergencies they'll push stuff out sooner but only if it's being actively exploited.

I have to say that I have only ONCE purchased a machine just to run Linux and that came with Linux: and that was a Pinebook Pro. All my other machines came with Windows or were designed for windows, and I converted them to Linux. The most recent by replacing the internal drive and preserving the old one so I could swap back if Windows were ever needed.
(I needed it ONCE: a firmware update for HP laptop hardware that they released ONLY for Windows.)

I understand your logic, and cannot disagree with swapping the drives. The HP Dev One is a great laptop but I had to re-install POP!_OS to do a firmware update since there was a BIOS error that kept telling me that a fan was failing. Once that was done, I re-installed Mint. If I had had an extra drive, I probably would have taken your solution which has a certain elegance to it. My big complaint, is if you are going to change something on the system, TELL me about it, do not stealth edit my permissions!

I've been computing since before there were hard drives. I loved DOS and fought Windows tooth and nail, at least in a business environment. I eventually gravitated to Win 2000 Pro, XP Pro, etc. through Win 10. There were always annoyances with each iteration; some things it just didn't do very well. I'm long since retired, and 2 things made me interested in Linux. My 2 laptops are sufficiently old that they can't be upgraded to Win 11. Being on a fixed income I can't afford to drop a cool grand (or more) on newer machines to run it. What I did do was buy a refurbished laptop (about $300) on which to continue with Windows, and have switched one of the older machines to Mint.

The other reason is that I don't like where Windows developers are heading with software: to subscriptions rather than outright purchases. I resent being made a permanent part of someone's revenue stream. So I'll keep a Windows machine for a while. I'm just getting started with Linux, but I figure learning about it will keep my mind active, as well as give me an out when the Microsoft crowd irritates me beyond my limit. Mint is a very nice suite of applications and features, and lets me get back into command line stuff at my own pace.

The world goes round in circles. Back in the 1970's a business would hire a mainframe computer from the manufacturers, and they maintained it and updated the OS as required. I can still remember people coming in to upgrade our mainframe OS where I worked. The really revolutionary thing about PC's from our point of view was that you could actually buy one on your departmental budget and buy the software too.

Good luck on your journey. One of the many nice things about Linux from the POV of us oldies is that it's easy to find out how it works.