It’s not free but I highly recommend Parted Magic. I’ve been using it since at least 2015.

I’d love to switch to Linux. I’ve used Linux off and on for almost two decades now. At one point I was triple booting Windows XP, Windows 7, and Fedora. The one thing holding me back is, strangely enough, game compatibility. I know Proton has made huge strides as I’ve seen it first hand on the Steam Deck, a lovely little machine. The problem is, I have a huge library, and while I’m okay with slightly less than ideal performance here and there on the Deck (40hz mode anyone?), I absolutely refuse to lose any performance due to running Linux. Benchmarks still show some titles losing 5-15% performance when running through Proton.

Don’t get me wrong. I love FOSS. I donate and try to spread the word as much as I can when I find a passion project, and find it particularly useful. Even though this may seem to go against what I previously said, I’m debating on switching to Linux when Windows 10 loses support. I do not want to enable fTPM on my motherboard or update my BIOS if I don’t have to. My PC is stable, no thank you. I feel like I’ll have to troubleshoot whether I choose Linux or Windows 11. Ugh.

The kid in me would like to try this while the adult in me is afraid of serious injury.