I suck at tech and have never had to do this. What the hell are you doing to Mint?

transitioning to GIMP from Photoshop has been harder for me than switching to Linux.

Same, but Affinity Photo instead of Photoshop.

I've often dabbled in Linux, mostly dual-booting, but now I'm fully committing. I mostly kept with Windows because Affinity Designer and Photo don't work on Linux, and having quality graphic design software is important to what I do. It just got to the point with Microsoft endlessly advertising to me, changing my defaults, trying to force me to use Edge, and forcing updates that I had enough and even having access to quality graphic design software wasn't enough for me to stay.

Glad to be part of the trend. Literally just yesterday, I got rid of Windows and installed Pop OS instead.

As someone who has been homeless, I would MUCH rather live my entire life in a "cinderblock gulag" then spend even a second homeless. So, yes, if we ever were to get such buildings provided to us from the government, I would greatly enjoy them.