Lots of other advice is echoing portions of this -- just let Windows be Windows -- don't try to force it to be Linux. A pickup truck and an El Camino look kind of similar if you squint, but serve very different purposes.
Get an off-lease refurb laptop (Newegg has tons of these [0], $300 can get you a decent 15" Lenovo / HP / Dell with SSD, 32GB ram, i7, etc)
Wipe it and install Windows 10 LTSC [1], install all known required university software, Git for Windows, Chocolatey, text editor(s) of choice, etc.
Image the main drive as a fresh starting point for when the machine gets hosed.
If you NEED real Linux, install those to VMs on a secondary drive or partition (I like VirtualBox as host but there are others) -- better to virtualize the least-demanding OS rather than the most.
Sync your browser bookmarks/history to the cloud.
Keep all of your code in separate private repos so they're backed up and you can pull down if you need to.
While on Windows, if you're trying to do Linux things, just use Git Bash. I doubt you'll ever need to touch Powershell or anything like that in general usage.
I wouldn't waste my time with Docker either -- it's dreadfully slow when using WSL, usable if you go back to regular Hyper-V and crank the RAM, but try as I might, I just have never found a scenario where it felt like the right solution to a problem on Windows.
It's also never a bad idea to find ways to separate your concerns -- my daily setup is a Windows 10 desktop, a Mac mini and a Linux desktop all in a closet, Windows on the main monitor, MacOS on the monitor to the right, keyboard and mouse shared via Synergy, and I SSH into the Linux box from Windows. I do most things on Windows, Mac things on the Mac, Linux things on Linux, but it's ergonomic and feels like one system (to me).
And do pick up all the other tips in this discussion -- good advice in there on snapshots, what to back up, etc.
There's no "correct configuration" for any of this stuff, you'll find a combo that feels good to you. Keep it simple and lean and you'll be fine. I've been using Windows as my primary desktop OS since 3.11 for Workgroups, it can be a fickle lover, sure, but Windows is incredibly capable in 2024.
Get an off-lease refurb laptop (Newegg has tons of these [0], $300 can get you a decent 15" Lenovo / HP / Dell with SSD, 32GB ram, i7, etc)
Wipe it and install Windows 10 LTSC [1], install all known required university software, Git for Windows, Chocolatey, text editor(s) of choice, etc.
Image the main drive as a fresh starting point for when the machine gets hosed.
If you NEED real Linux, install those to VMs on a secondary drive or partition (I like VirtualBox as host but there are others) -- better to virtualize the least-demanding OS rather than the most.
Sync your browser bookmarks/history to the cloud.
Keep all of your code in separate private repos so they're backed up and you can pull down if you need to.
While on Windows, if you're trying to do Linux things, just use Git Bash. I doubt you'll ever need to touch Powershell or anything like that in general usage.
I wouldn't waste my time with Docker either -- it's dreadfully slow when using WSL, usable if you go back to regular Hyper-V and crank the RAM, but try as I might, I just have never found a scenario where it felt like the right solution to a problem on Windows.
It's also never a bad idea to find ways to separate your concerns -- my daily setup is a Windows 10 desktop, a Mac mini and a Linux desktop all in a closet, Windows on the main monitor, MacOS on the monitor to the right, keyboard and mouse shared via Synergy, and I SSH into the Linux box from Windows. I do most things on Windows, Mac things on the Mac, Linux things on Linux, but it's ergonomic and feels like one system (to me).
And do pick up all the other tips in this discussion -- good advice in there on snapshots, what to back up, etc.
There's no "correct configuration" for any of this stuff, you'll find a combo that feels good to you. Keep it simple and lean and you'll be fine. I've been using Windows as my primary desktop OS since 3.11 for Workgroups, it can be a fickle lover, sure, but Windows is incredibly capable in 2024.
Links:
[0] https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=4131%204016%20600566986%201000...
[1] https://massgrave.dev/windows_ltsc_links.html