Linux

If you aren't familiar with Linux yet at all I would suggest a Mint. You can think about using stuff like Nix after you're a but not familiar with the way Unix-likes work.

I know this thread is old, but let me add this to the conversation: Look into distrobox, it essentially allows you to use packages from any distro inside of your current one.

Warning: not space efficient

That said, this takes the question of "what packages do I want" out of the equation when choosing a distro

After having tried many distros, I settled on Fedora. It's a boring choice, but it has been a great experience for me. Everything pretty much works without issue, and the OS gets out of the way for me to do my work.

I also think that having a trustworthy company and team behind it matters. It's hard to trust some obscure distro to provide proper support, security updates, and proper testing.

Also, while I enjoy tinkering and messing around, my main OS is not one of the thinks I would want to tinker with. I have work to do, and I need a stable platform i can rely on.

I've recently switched to NixOS and I'm loving it. I'd say that it's as much of a learning curve as Arch, but without the breakage when you screw something up.

You install all your packages and do all your configuration from the main config file. Should something somehow break you can simply switch to an older generation (a state of your computer, basically) and go on with your day. Also, if you configure something incorrectly it will warn you and refuse to apply it. You can even check the config file into git and keep track of your changes!

The new terminology can be pretty daunting, especially when people start talking about flakes. My suggestion is to simply avoid those until they've matured.

I can't comment on it's ability to game, but I'd definitely give it a try :D