I've had it with Apple, Google, and the ilk. My dislike started back in 2016 when I did some search warrants and began to get a feel for just how much data was being collected, but after some things I've found it this past year I'm just done. I'm planning to run a de-Googled Android with GrapheneOS for a phone and I'd like to transition to one of the Linux distributions with a LibreBoot or Coreboot BIOS on an older Thinkpad.

Any suggestions on which Linux distribution to run? I was looking at Mint, but am now thinking Trisquel.

I use Centos, but I have a server farm. We learn what we deploy. My desktop is Apple, my 600 database servers are Centos 7.7.

I've had good experiences with Mint, but at the same time I like Ubuntu because it's popular and there's lots of information available about it.

I would recommend against linux as a primary desktop unless you have linux admin experience. It can be difficult.

I've used Linux on my desktop and laptop since 2009. I do have one Win10 device for the rare need to run an *.exc file, such as updating camera firmware or something.

I started with Linux Mint Mate. There was a learning curve but found the less I fooled with and "tweaked" the operating system, the better it seemed to run. It just worked "out of the box". Over the years I've tried all the versions of Mint as well as many other Linux distros ... and I keep coming back to Linux Mint Mate. It just works super for me. Linux Mint flagship version is "Cinnamon" and I don't care for it. While Mint Mate isn't as flashy as Cinnamon, with all the animations and such as many coming from Windows expect, Mate uses slightly less CPU resources and just seems noticeably faster to me. I've never had issues of crashing or freezing. Mint Mate is and always has been rock solid for me. I like to keep it simple. I don't need or want a flashy eye candy operating system.

Thing is though, different Linux distros appeal to different folks. Maybe that's why there are so many variations. Good news is that it doesn't take long at all to install the software for most Linux versions and most of the better distros even allow you to run a live version from CD/DVD/Thumbdrive without even installing the software, just to get a feel if you might like it or not. The live version on portable media is slower than installed software of course, but you get a feel for what the user interface and software bundle is like.

Linux Mint is a fork off Ubuntu but Mint takes what Ubuntu dishes out and carefully scrutinizes software and updates for compatibility and seamless integration before releasing it as a part of Mint, with little chance of negative software regression. In general, Mint to me just seems more secure and problem free than Ubuntu MIGHT be. Mint is worry free for me. Nothing wrong with Ubuntu I guess though, it's the most popular Linux distro in the world. If I didn't run Mint, Ubuntu would likely get another close look.

So try them all until you find the Linux distro you like. Linux Mint Mate was just super easy to transition to from WinXP all those many years ago, it checks all the boxes for me and I love it.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend you ditch the operating system you now have, but rather, run and play with Linux on a separate device until you are comfortable with Linux and feel it fits your needs. If you have an old computer stored somewhere that just can't handle Windows anymore, it should be just fine for Linux. In fact, I have the most up to date Linux Mint Mate version running on an old 2007 Dell Latitude D830 laptop no problem, although over the years I have upgraded the Dell with an SSD drive that really perked it up. I don't use the laptop often, only because I'm mostly here on my (much newer) desktop these days. My point is that Linux will work on old as well as new computers.

 
I'm traditional, or old fashioned, usually preferring FreeBSD. The times I've installed Linux it has been the Debian distro.

I am also a fan of FreeBSD having cut my teeth on SunOS and bsd 4.2, however I do see a lot of Linuxes in my work (more servers than desktops). With no previous exposure to a Unix-like system, I think Ubuntu or Mint is probably the easiest to bootstrap ones consciousness. There can be a long learning curve no matter what Unix-like OS is selected.

The user experience will be greatly influenced by the GUI/desktop environment chosen. Research these as much as the underlying OS.

Hobbs suggestion for setting up a test/learning machine first is a very good one. Another way to do this would be in a VM, e.g. under Hyper-V or Virtual Box. That way you can get a feel for things without having to commit all your precious data to it.

[SIDE NOTE]

You guys got me interested in FreeBSD. This morning I downloaded and ran GhostBSD live version from a thumbdrive. GhostBSD is FreeBSD with a Mate GUI/desktop and so it seemed very familiar to me coming from Linux Mint Mate. GhostBSD is even bundled with some of the same software apps as Mint, including the main ones ... Libre Office, Firefox and Thunderbird.

Thing is though, the download file for GhostBSD is about 1GB larger than the Linux Mint download. Not sure what the system size would be installed since I only ran the live version of Ghost and maybe it's just a download file compression issue, dunno, but 1GB is a lot of extra code.

GhostBSD doesn't check all the boxes for me. I have a SONOS sound system throughout my home. While SONOS doesn't have an official Linux SONOS app, I'm able to use a Linux freeware version of SONOS in Linux Mint that may not work in GhostBSD. I'd have to do much digging around to find out.

Bottom line for me is that GhostBSD GUI/desktop is very similar to Linux Mint Mate but offers no improvement on my computing experience ... not that I feel I need any. And MAY have some limitations compared to how I'm currently set up and satisfied with Linux Mint. Had I started out with GhostBSD and used for years, I might feel the same way about Linux Mint as I currently feel about Ghost.

[/SIDE NOTE]

I'm not sure about running a BSD as a "daily driver" would work for me.

I've been having to live through Citrix for work since March and I can get MS Teams for Linux if need be and I know Citrix will work in Linux, especially on the more mainstream distributions.

Most BSD distributions will run Linux binaries, even kernel add-ons without recompiling. There may be some variation in where certain configuration files and libraries might be installed, pretty easily fixed with symlinks.

I have done this as an experiment, and for learning, but I've never felt a necessity for running Linux programs, always been able to find a suitable native substitute. Support for very unusual hardware can be an issue, but since you have the source code and a reasonably useful build architecture, the roll your own option is not too steep a climb.

I hope I'm not coming off as some sort of fanboi. In fact, I would not recommend "raw" FreeBSD for the average Windows/Mac user as a desktop OS (Linux either). Those who want their systems to provide at least some server functionality though, and are interested in learning, may be well rewarded. Of course, MacOS (and iOS) is mostly BSD under the hood, and even Windows has a lot of BSD code in it at this point.