Linux

zorin is likely the easiest out of box distro you can get but its not a gaming distro. if gaming is that important I would consider either just using a gaming distro or dual booting one.

Elementary OS, or something like Garuda or Debian with either Gnome or KDE desktops.

As far as i can tell, all distros are capable of doing what you want (or if there were a problem, no distro could help)

I honestly just use ubuntu, because its user friendly, has long term support builds that are well tested. Especially if you are new, use a major distro like mint or ubuntu, not cschyOS or PopOS. I personally like the gnome interface, which ships with ubuntu.

other than that: decide if you like distro hopping as a hobby, if not, just stick to a major distro and thsts that.

None of your requirements are distribution specific. I do all (Steam, non Steam, Kdenlive, Blender/OpenSCAD, vim/Podman, LibreOffice, Transmission) of that and I'm running Debian with an NVIDIA GPU. Consequently I can personally recommend it.

Bazzite or Fedora.

Check out Distrosea. Its a website where you can test different Linux distros, before installing anything.

My recommendation is, that you read ALL the other post about the same topic. Because there are plenty of answers to your question there.

Regarding the stuff you want to do: it doesn't matter what distro you pick, they can all run the same stuff anyways.

I would recommend something Fedora-based, because that's most people recommend. It's very sane and user friendly. Bazzite would be the best pick imo, but the classic Fedora KDE variant is also good for most people.

All other of your questions, like gaming stuff, are (or will) be answered anyways by a dozen other people here.

But I can give you some perspective regarding CAD and video editing.

CAD on Linux sucks. Most is made as Windows only, and many people have tried running it through Wine (Bottles) or other janky methods. Don't even try it.
FreeCAD is also not the best choice in my personal opinion, especially if you come from other CAD software. But you can try it of course, maybe you'll like it.

The only "proper" recommendation, and what I also use personally, is Onshape. It's browser based, intuitive to use, has a good UX and many features. Downside: it's proprietary and browser based, including all your files. If the company behind it decides to piss in your face, there is nothing that will stop them.

Video editing is a lot better.
As you already mentioned, there's Davinci Resolve, which is available for Linux too.
I recommend you, especially if you choose Bazzite or any other distro where it isn't available officially, to check out Distrobox and install it from there, so it won't mess up the rest of your host OS.
But maybe try Kdenlive first. It's a one click install and works great too, while being FOSS on top.

bazzite is imo by far the safest and most usable distro for beginners. if you fuck something up with your distro you can easily solve the issue without data loss by typing "rpm-ostree reset". thats it, it doesnt get as simple as this anywhere else. bazzite's dev team also tests each image and makes sure its configuration works before pushing it to you, and since each image is exactly the same you basically have your own IT team.

I'm extremely happy with bazzite, it's basically impossible to break, and great for gaming.

Just be aware that it is very focused on flatpaks, so installing anything that doesn't have a flatpak version does require some extra steps.

If you're comming from Windows and don't want to be too much distabilized ZorinOS is probably one of the best.

Other great choice are:

• bazzite
• Linux Mint
• Pop_OS!

However CAD on Linux is not great, there is some free tools but they are so much more limited than the proprietary windows suite of tools. Maybe WinBoat could make your software run good enough.

Nobarra, Bazzite, or CachyOS.

I'd say Nobara or Bazzite are better for 'I install it and it just works.'

Cachy is better for the learning aspect. It's not hard, but there are more choices to make, and you're closer to the Arch wiki and all its excellent resources/tutorials.

I am biased, as I run CachyOS and I love it. I also love how much stuff is in its repos, including everything you need to game optimally, and how easy CUDA is (which is part of what you need for CAD).

Whatever you choose, do not, I repeat DO NOT install Fedora, Debian, or anything that doesn't explicitly support Nvidia laptops by default, out of the box, or you are in for a world of pain. If any guide starts with 'install these 3rd party repos' or so, you have entered a danger zone, and you will hate linux.

Sure, Pop!OS'll likely be fine.

AntiX first sprang to mind before reading further through your list.

Mint, MXLinux, and SuSe also came to mind.

Not sure how well each and every part sought is covered. Though probably almost any distro will do.

PS: https://distrowatch.com/search.php?ostype=All&category=Beginners&origin=All&basedon=All&notbasedon=None&desktop=All&architecture=All&package=All&rolling=All&isosize=All&netinstall=All&language=All&defaultinit=All&status=Active#simpleresults

I've used both Bazzite and Garuda. Both have an Nvidia install, both are gamer focused, and both have been easy.

Bazzite was immutable, which I ended up not liking.

• Nobara
• Bazzite
• PopOS
• fedora

For more info, take a look at this

Linux Mint

I just jumped ship from Windows 11 about a week ago. I have not logged back into my Windows dual boot since because I have not yet found a reason to. Beware of dual booting since Windows updates sometimes hose the boot manager for your Linux partitions. I chose Linux Mint Cinnamon because I wanted a similar look/feel to windows as well as favoring longer and more stable support. Mint is also a good option for Linux noobs (like us!) since it does a lot for you. I play both Steam and GOG games. Steam was easy, just go to to the software manager and download steam then install. GOG was a little different, since they don't seem to have a Linux version of GOG Galaxy. So, I tried both Lutris and Heroic game launchers (available in the software manager) and connected my GOG account. I have been able to get everything to play so far. I cannot speak to video editing software or programming. Use the online version of Microsoft apps if you need them, otherwise, Libre Office is preinstalled with software that does everything the Microsoft Office suite does. Since I run several storage drives in my system that I wanted to auto-mount on boot, I did have to edit my fstab file to make this happen - this was the only thing I needed to do through the terminal and there were some great videos showing what to do, then you just apply what is shown in those videos to your system setup. I really didn't have to do this, Mint is great that i could just click the drive and it would mount it, but if my Steam opened before it was mounted, then it didn't know where my game storage was and I had to restart Steam for it to pick up my game drive. Again, very little terminal usage was needed on my side. My printer just works, wireless, bluetooth headset works, etc. So far, I say thumbs up for Linux Mint Cinnamon!! If I go a month without hitting a wall and logging into my Windows install, I will probably just totally remove my Windows installation.

If you are coming from Windows, I would say Mint for sure. I have friends that are 20 using it and my parents in their 70's use it. Both seem to like it and even find it easier to use in quite a few respects.

check out the heroic launcher, can run gog games on linux and it's super easy to use

First thing I wanna implore you do is create a separate partition on your boot drive for your /home folder. Distro hopping is super normal when you’re starting out, and by separating your home folder makes distro hopping very easy.

Bazzite, like others suggested, is your best bet at a first attempt because it’s much harder to cause irreparable damage with a stray terminal command.

All of the apps you listed should work just fine under Linux. Bazzite ships with Steam and Lutris (it’s a game store aggregator) to get you started with gaming. Use Microsoft 365 online or one of the open sourced alternatives like libreoffice for office apps. The rest of the programs should either be able to be run with wine/bottles/WinApps.

A 1050 is kinda paltry by today’s standards, so just don’t expect a big bump in gaming performance or super snappy emulation.

CAD is going to be your achilles heel, unfortunately.

If Blender can do what you need, then you are fine, but if you need CAD for things like architecture, I’m afraid it’s one of the most painful gaps in Linux, currently.

Try Bazzite first. If you find you need more control, then switch to Fedora KDE.

Avoid POP_OS for now. Their new desktop environment is currently in beta and it still has some bugs. When it finally releases later this month and the remaining bugs have been fixed, it may be worth a try. The nice thing about Linux is that it’s very quick and easy to install, so you can try different distros quickly and easily.

I recommend getting yourself a dedicated thumb drive and put Ventoy on it. Ventoy lets you selectively boot to any iso you put on the thumb drive. It’s just wonderful.

I recommend trying CachyOS. It's easy to use and it works out of the box and offers great support for your type of hardware out of the box too. As for the use cases you need linux, it's more about software that you run on linux and not the OS itself in most cases. Also I have same kind of hardware as you have and I've been experiencing major issues with fedora and fedora-based distros like Bazzite and Nobara. I've seen so many people there recommending those so beware!

Surprised I haven’t seen a mention of ZorinOS yet.