Unsure if it's a viable option for you, but using KDE's Dolphin file browser, it's rather straight forward for me to set default applications through GUI. Also maybe worth noting I use Mint Xfce, even though Dolphin is a QT program ported.

Regarding gaming support, Heroic Launcher also help a bunch, since you can easily set up multiple versions of forks of Wine (Valve's Proton being one), or even to use the system ones.

About the wifi issue, maybe it is some oddly specific hardware that the devs tackled only in Mint 22. And in a bit of a humorous tone, what's learning without a bit of struggle? 😅

And lastly, besides dual boot, you could also set up a VM with the secondary system(s) you want. Just worth noting hardware-dependent games, e.g. many from the Windows 9x time, will struggle on VMs.

Launchers should do just that, to launch the game. Doing anything other than that is, before anything, a repurposing of the word.

And regarding this specific game, I didn't see the whole struggle so I don't even know which game it is, but in case it is officially sold anywhere DRM-free, I strongly suggest going for that, wherever it may be.

[Copypasta of the other repost] While I know the situation described in the article can set a precedent, the title feels misleading at best, given the article describes a single case, and not (yet) a widespread practice.

It has native screenshot functions, yes, but they are highly compressed. Iirc, there's a tool for taking uncompressed screenshots, but given the watermark in the screenshot, it's most likely the native function.

Maybe Celeste Classic? Apparently someone made a homebrew port of it to the GBA.

There's also Final Fantasy VI, which can be played kinda with the brain "on automatic" on quite a few sections as well as having overall plenty of places to save.

And since you'll be emulating them, if your device has save states features, Shantae for the GBC could be a good pick too. It is harder and less save-friendly than FFVI, but with save states, it should be better as a pick and play title.

And although focused on speedrunning, the impression I got from the homebrew Augury Red Code is that it is also nice if playing without having to focus too much on it.

Metal Slug 1 and X, and also Gunbird, all 3 released in the PS1, also benefit from save states to be more "pick and play".

If I understand correctly, you're struggling with isolation? If so, and if you have the time and resources for it, maybe finding a hobby, sports club, etc. in your area could help?

About gaming, from my personal experience, it's overall pretty straight forward. When issues happen, you just got to have patience to read through logs and search up on Google or similar any suspicious parts of the log. Worst part is usually DRM/anticheat, but from what I can gather, usually pretty isolated cases are problematic due to compatibility, usually requiring the devs to go out of their ways to make the DRM incompatible.

As for the distros question, perhaps Linux Mint? It trades off bleeding edge updates for the sake of stability. Just avoid the Debian-based variant of Mint for now as it's still in beta.

If, by 100%, it includes 100% of the achievements/trophies, I can only remember Mary Skelter Nightmares¹, Odin Sphere Leifthrasir and Starbound as games I still enjoy after doing 100%.

¹og version; dunno if the updated version bundled with Mary Skelter 2 has trophies (didn't stop me from finishing it on the Switch, though e.e")

Other than GOG's withering "movies" section, I only remember of two that aren't overly niche, DLsite and Fakku (both mainly porn stores). Maybe Itunes' videos are DRM free, but I haven't tested and still it would break the "no app" condition since it's required for payment and download. Also maybe Itchio and Gumroad have something on videos too, since they don't limit the types of media allowed there, but I have yet to confirm.

Linguistics, data hoarding, and when I'm in the mood or have time, gaming and reading.

On a hopeful line of thought, I think it could help remind people that they may have unfinished projects that could be picked back up. *-*