Overcoming one more barrier to entry.

Windows is gone

Sounds like secureboot shinanigans. Windows just needs to be on its own total drive.

I’d just use Kubuntu. Had to fix CachyOS twice this year.

There’s also Colibri which runs large models off of a SSD at a much slower speed than corporations. The large high-quality stuff has been gated by big-tech with gigantic GPUs. Colibri, if nothing else than a proof of concept, shows that high quality stuff can run on anything with a hit to speed.