

scientists and researchers, is that they throw more money at it.
You seem to be using the present tense there rather than the past tense. Are you sure that’s still true. I was under the impression the Bibulous Bumbling Bill had slashed research budgets (among other things like medicaid) in order to fund billionaire tax cuts.
Not to mention the attempts to proscribe what can be researched that Harvard is currently litigating
Yes Mint is a good choice for your migration. It has been put together in a way that makes it intuitive for a windows refugee. The menu layout has the “start” (mint) button bottom left with your apps in there.
The system apps are named obvious things like “software manager” and it has default apps installed to get you going.
Being derived from Ubuntu it is the best supported platform for commercial apps/games but with Ubuntu’s weird choices (snap etc) tidied up.
It’s the most recommended linux distro for beginners for a reason. It’s a solid reliable well thought out platform