Recovered a broken Kubuntu install I tried switching to that got broken on a missconfig'd update, half broken Linux install and it was still better and more featured than my W11... I am hopeful that I can finally make the switch permanent
I recommend making your /home a separate partition. It makes switching distros easier and also allows you to not encrypt your installation and only your own files, saving you from the headache in the case LUKS doesn't work properly anymore.
Totally agree. I take it a step further and keep my /home on a separate encrypted M.2, and my /boot on an old 256GB SSD. That setup lets me fully encrypt root while keeping /boot accessible. I use grml-rescueboot to add ISOs to the GRUB menu and the extra space on /boot is handy.
It's been a while, but I remember encrypting just the home folder used to break SSH key auth unless the user was already logged in locally, because their .ssh/authorized_keys file wasn't available. Pre-shared keys make scp and tab completion really convenient, so that was kind of a pain.
I thought a bunch of config files and Biden hidden folders and stuff are in /home. If I switch, will I not end up with a bunch of orphaned files from (in my case) Debian just cluttering the place up? I did the separate partition thing as is so often recommended.