I was on both sides of the coin growing up - Often the bullied but sometimes getting my chance to be the asshole kid.
It wasn’t until high school when a kid was insulting one of my friends that really turned it. The kid decided, because I “stuck my nose in their business” that he wanted to fight me. The fight was one-sided because I didn’t want to fight but the result was me getting myself into boxing and wrestling. Most people didn’t know I had gotten fight training but people largely left me alone after that simply because I didn’t back down or go passive anymore. It’s not worth it for a bully to go after someone who could hurt them when they have so many targets who won’t bother or don’t know how to defend themselves.
I’d say, my best advice, learn how to protect yourself. Having the confidence to stand in-front of a bully and let them know that you won’t take their shit anymore is often enough to deter them. Should they choose to “fuck around and find out”, defend yourself. Try not to embarrass them, especially if you are in the US, but showing them that not only can you defend yourself but can fight, they are more likely to leave you alone in the future.
Before I got fight training I suffered multiple trips to the hospital for stitches and concussions. Afterwards, I never had to defend myself. Violence is not a great answer but when faced with violence, we must know how to and be willing to protect ourselves.
Maxprime’s response is a good one - I’ll just toss in mine as well as someone very similar to your situation. I switched off Microsoft after paying for a Windows 11 key and then just not being able to authenticate.
I’ve run Linux and Unix servers from command-line but had 0 experience with Linux as a Windows replacement. I’ve been using Fedora 41 KDE Plasma for 9 months now as my exclusive gaming machine and while, yes, there have been a few hiccups to overcome, once you figure out a few simple tricks, most stuff just works thanks to the work put into Proton.
My entire Steam library works using Proton Experimental, I play Blizzard and GoG games via Lutris without issue. If you are interested in figuring more stuff out, the community is there to help guide you through your own exploration but if you just want answers, it’s easy to find those too.
Biggest issue I ran into is when Space Marine 2 came out. Played fine the first day then a patch dropped and I couldn’t play it. Found quickly that adding a command line argument in Steam to tell Space Marine 2 that it was running a Steam Deck fixed the issue until the dev could patch it.
I definitely urge people who are at all interested in Linux and not just saying “I’m a gamer, so I can’t use Linux” as a more polite way to say “I don’t want the hassle of switching from Windows” (which is perfectly valid and you do you), check out Ventoy (simple tutorial: https://www.linuxfordevices.com/tutorials/linux/ventoy-tutorial) - Install it on a USB stick, drop an ISO onto it and boot from the USB stick to select a temporary OS to play around in. Doesn’t have to be permanent, don’t need to lose any data, and you can get your own experience with a distro to decide if making the jump from Windows is right for you.
Have fun gaming, friend!