The usual suspects are Bazzite, Garuda, Nobara. But you can game on every distro. To give proper advice, some info on your hardware would be needed.

Back in the day we used Knoppix, I know it still exists, but no clue if it's still viable?

Just for choosing: https://distrochooser.de/ - or put some distros with a tool like Ventoy on a USB stick and do a live install to test it on the actual system. The many options are a great thing, but of course not easy to get into at first. So I'd try not to overthink it, distrohopping is a hobby for some of us :D

For trying out how it looks and feels: https://distrosea.com/

For understanding more about Linux: https://linuxjourney.com/

Typically recommended guides:

https://easylinuxtipsproject.blogspot.com/p/1.html

https://linuxjourney.com/

Have a good transition and if you stick with Mint, I'd recommend the official forums for any questions: https://forums.linuxmint.com/index.php

Proton should work well but if you have any questions you might wanna subscribe to

[email protected], [email protected]

I hope you will find everything you need and that the transition will be smooth!

Edit: Fixed the links, thanks bot.

This is so cool and wholesome, thank you.

This really caught my eye, but does it make sense for an older PC?

https://www.privacyguides.org/en/frontends/#youtube

That's great to hear, thanks.

Great project, thanks for sharing.

Quick question: will this be self-hosted only or will there be a public instance or something the like?

You might wanna crosspost in https://lemmy.ml/c/linuxmint

I had the same experience. Just can't get back in.