Eugenia

ARM was bought by the Japanese, it’s no longer European. RISC-V is the future.

I find the looks of Cinnamon just fine with a bit of optimization, eg… using the new theme and using cinnamenu instead of the default menu. Here’s mine: https://files.mastodon.social/media_attachments/files/113/537/970/191/106/160/original/2bfb19edd50e248f.jpg What i like from mint is that it’s clean looking.

As a first linux I’d suggest Mint, not suse or anything else. I’m a debian-testing user myself (rolling release), but for new users, use mint. All the problems you mention don’t happen on mint.

I’d suggest you go with companies that offer Linux laptops, e.g. System76, Tuxedo, Framework, and a couple more. Failing that, get a Thinkpad of 1-2 years ago. Failing that, get a DELL from 5 years ago (before the new intel webcams). Just make sure the screen has enough resolution, and you get 16 GB of RAM. Anything else (e.g. cpu, gpu) is enough for Linux to work adequately. Just give it RAM.

I wouldn’t suggest you buy a random new laptop, because even if they might “mostly” work, there will be parts that probably don’t, e.g. the fan controls, the webcams etc. Linux can’t support the latest and greatest, unless the manufacturer made sure of it.