3. Are there any distributions that come with the minimum pre-installed apps ? ... I mean not even a video or music player

You would not believe the obsession the Linux community has with minimal distros. Yes, there are many variants of "nothing" pre-installed.

Problem is, that many of the minimal distributions are more difficult to use, because they might not have a GUI, for example. Or they don't have handling for Bluetooth out of the box. Things like that.

For someone new to Linux, I would not recommend jumping straight to a minimal distro. The pre-installed apps are typically decent on Linux (like a recommendation by the folks who create the distro) and if you don't know much of the ecosystem yet, it's a good way to start learning about it.

If you do find, you really just don't need any video or music player, you can also separately uninstall them. Which, again, is easier than installing missing things that you never heard of.

1. Conky widgets allow you to put some dynamic info on your desktop like hardware info, weather, RSS, etc. Also, Dash to Dock gives you a macOS like dock. Oh, and Gnome Tweaks allows you to customise your own Windows-like taskbar on the bottom, with application names and desktops.

2. Only problem I've experienced is that the fingerprint reader didn't work on some laptops while it did on others. YMVM, just try a Live USB, I'd say.

3. In my opinion they're not worth it, and you can uninstall anything you don't like, anyway.

• Rooting in Android means you're always logged in as root (admin), often without password. This is unsafe. In Linux tasks can get rooted individually. This is safe (just don't give a bad task like a virus root-access) In a DE, like Gnome, some pop-up window will ask for your password if a task needs root. In a terminal, just add sudo in front of a command that needs root, and enter your password if the terminal asks.

4. Yes, you can uninstall any pre-installed app, just right-click it on the menu, Gnome will ask for your password so it can root that one uninstall task! Or type sudo apt remove followed by that app's internal name, like sudo apt remove firefox!

5. Not at all, it's the opposite! Since updates concern the whole system, system updates always require to run as root underwater!

6. This depends on your login screen, but assuming Debian or Ubuntu: Install the other DE, usually you just need to sudo apt install some things. Then on the login screen, there's a button with an icon on the top-right of where you enter your password, just click that and choose the other DE. You can now switch DE anytime you log in!

7. Lazy answer: Wayland and Docker

1. Have you looked at Mate Desktop? It's based off of an earlier version of Gnome but I find it much more familiar to the way things used to be managed on Windows.

2. That's going to come down to the specific hardware. A lot of vendors build their devices to only work under Windows but there are a lot of smart Linux techs who have been able to reverse-engineer working drives. Your best bet is to find a hardware compatibility list and see how much support your particular laptop has.

3. If you look at Debian, you can get the "net-install" image. This doesn't even install a desktop environment, it simply boots you to a command line and you can install whatever you want to use. Many other distributions probably have a similar installed available, it's just a matter of deciphering what the names mean.

4. If you install something as root, or if it's installed by the system during the initial installation, then yes you'll need root, but more likely you will use "sudo" which gives your user account the temporary access needed (if it was set up with that access). Again, going back to something like Debian's net-install, everything except the core OS would be installed by you anyway.

5. "Rooting" sounds like a term you brought from an Android phone. In desktop terms, think of the root user as being like the admin on Windows. You only use it when needed, like when you're performing a system update, otherwise you do everything under your regular user account.

6. When you install a DE like Gnome, it also adds a login to your graphical interface. If you install a second DE, then on the login screen you are presented a choice as to which one you want to use this time. If you want to switch, you just log out and select another one from the login screen. You can have as many as you want, just remember that this loads a ton of extra stuff on your system. It's ok to play with, but then I would suggest uninstalling the ones you don't like.

7. Wayland is the core of the DE. The previous system was Xorg, but both are still in common use. Docker is a container system, so like if you wanted to install a web server then Docker would contain all of the modules for that software independently of anything else you have installed. This means that a system update is less likely to break something (although that's already pretty unlikely), but it does require more storage space.

I suggest reading through multiple answers despite everyone answering all your questions, this way you get the most complete answers. As such, here's my two cents:

1. Yes, search for "Widgets" at Gnome's official website to see: https://extensions.gnome.org/

2. Depends on what you mean by "problematic"? My laptop refused to go to sleep because of a setting in the wifi card, but once I changed it I haven't had any issues. You may also find that some of your hardware is nonstandard, and therefore requires extra steps during installation.

3. What do you mean "minimum"? Because I installed Debian headless, and starting with nothing but a command-line and the system utilities and nothing else installed is what I heard, but maybe in your mind it just means a graphical desktop and nothing more. If you did mean that, you could try something like MATE for your desktop environment, or XFCE if you want to learn by customizing. If you're feeling really adventurous, use SwayWM

4. Depends on how it came installed, but generally it's easy. Most of the time, starting out it will be as easy as running the uninstall command for whatever package management software installed it.

5. "Rooting" a device refers to installing untrusted firmware on SoC devices. Unless your laptop is a chromebook, you probably don't need to worry about that. Dual-booting Windows and Linux won't stop Windows from updating, nor stop whatever application manages your firmware from working in Windows, if that's what you're worried about.

6. It depends on your distro and its package manager(s). In Debian it's as easy as sudo apt install <Desktop Environment> and then logging out, changing which DE you're logging into, and then logging back in. Most are going to be that way

7. Lazy answer: don't worry about it, and don't worry about it. If you're the type who wants their PC to "just work," it's behind-the-scenes stuff that will never apply to you. If you're prepared to get down in the weeds, occasionally break things, and customize every aspect of your OS, then you'll learn when it's relevant. If you're saying "Lazy question" and not showing that you already did some research on the topics, you're most likely in the former camp; this isn't a value judgment, just an observation.

But, since we're all still nerds here regardless of what we're nerdy about, and since learning almost never hurts, I'll throw some vocab at you to get you started:

Wayland is a specification of how software should display things on the screen, it's the generic blueprints of how Display Servers and their Clients should behave; Wayland is seeking to replace the X Window System specification, and specifically the popular Xorg Server implementation.

Docker is a containerization platform (software ecosystem). Containers are essentially a small subset of Virtual Machines (or VMs) which are Guest operating systems that run within a separated off environment from your Host operating system. On Linux, features like namespaces, cgroups, and chroots are used to achieve this effect. Containers tend to use less hardware than Hypervisor-hosted VMs, but also tend to be single-purpose systems.

My answer for #2 is I have never personally had a problem with Linux on a laptop. Everything works as intended. The only funny thing was when I switched to Arch Linux took a little bit of work to get games to use my Nvidia GPU instead of the integrated one in my CPU. But that was maybe 30 minutes of googling and installing stuff off the AUR. When I ran pop_os it worked right out of the box. I believe pop has all of the Nvidia stuff installed and on Arch I just had to figure out what I needed. That problem was just from lack of experience.

My answer for #3 is I don't know but I've had fun testing different software out to find something that suits me. I want to say way back in the day Ubuntu had a bunch of stuff pre installed. But that was probably 2007 when I last used Ubuntu. On Arch you can just use the discover store to find stuff. If you can't find it there it's in the AUR.

#4 rooting on Linux isn't like rooting on Android. Android is built off Linux so to have "root" access is just like having administrator access or whatever on Windows. Android phones are more locked down so it's usually a pain to root (the manufacturer don't really want you to do it). On your own Linux computer you just use root access. For example on Arch in the terminal to do a full system update you have to use root access so you type "sudo pacman -Syu" in the terminal then it asks you for the sudo password or root password that you yourself setup on install. Sudo is the command that says hey I want to do this no questions asked.

#5 it's Linux you can do whatever you want. You can go through and destroy the entire os if you want.

I'm coming on a year being full time on Linux so that's about the best I can do answering your questions. I'm sure other people will explain stuff better. Good luck!

1. there are things called gnome extensions that change things up.
2. it’s just that a lot of laptops are potatoes with wierd hardware and drivers aren’t always available. If you have a popular laptop you’ll have better luck. Can’t predict how it’ll go other than goggling your laptop and seeing if you can find a post saying what worked and didn’t. Can’t hurt to try either way…
3. yes. There are plenty with installed apps. Hard to believe you didn’t find any music or video players. Either way - doesn’t matter. Install VLC and it plays everything.
4. most Linux distributions will let you delete Linux itself if you’re so inclined. My vote is to just leave the default programs that install with the distro unless you’re in need of an absolute bare bones system/size (which it doesn’t sound like you are)
5. root is a user, nothing more. If you don’t know why you’re using root, then don’t. Based on your questions, I’d say you can do everything you need as a normal user with sudo privileges.
6. to be honest I’ve never actually done this. I believe you can even install multiples at once and switch between them. Most distros come with a choice of DE during install. Check them out in a vm and just install the one you want. If you’re hell bent on swapping on an existing install, best read a guide on how to do it for your distro.
7. this isn’t exactly right, but docker is kind of like virtual machines. Not quite full on VMs, but rather they are called containers. You can download a docker image, and fire up say, a pihole server. Or in my case, I run a preconfigured ubiquity WiFi controller. Don’t worry about these for now - it’s a later thing. Wayland is replacing X. Some distros use it, some don’t. X is very old - it’s stable and doesn’t get updates and just works. Until it doesn’t because it’s old and doesn’t get updates. Enter Wayland. New things of that complexity are hard to make so there’s bugs with it. Works for some people, not for others. Go watch some YouTube videos on the topic - it’s interesting.

Good luck!